CoG: Raven and Jackdaw
by NorthSouthGorem
Summary: His body was destroyed, his spirit brought to the point of nonexistence. But Naruto did not give up, and neither did the Kyuubi. Fortunately for them, Ravirn is the helpful sort. NaruHinaFuu. Powerful, Chaotic Naruto. First fic of its kind. A Tale of the Gor- sorry, UDOM. "This is not the beginning, but closer than most."
1. Chapter 1

AN: Introducing the very first Naruto and Ravirn Crossover ever; CoG: Raven and Jackdaw! Here's hoping I don't screw it up. And yeah, I know I'm supposed to work on my other stuff, but I just can't help it.

Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, while Ravirn is owned by Kelly McCullough.

"Speech"  
><span>Typing<span>  
><em>Thoughts<em>  
><em><span>Inner being to outer being<span>_  
><strong>BijuuDeity/Power**  
><span><strong>JutsuTechnique/Spell**

Chapter 1: Beyond nothing, and the unison of one and a half souls

At the border of Hi no Kuni, two boys faced off in the Valley of the End.

Sasuke Uchiha stood at the foot of a statue of his ancestor, Madara Uchiha. His skin and hair were tinged gray from his Level Two Cursed Seal, and a pair of webbed, hand-like wings sprouted from his back. A ball of black and silver lightning crackled in his hand, giving off the sound of a thousand birds taking flight.

Across from him, crouching on the foot of Hashirama Senju's statue, was Naruto Uzumaki. A translucent red cloak covered his form and his normally blue eyes red with slitted pupils. He clutched an orb of swirling chakra in one hand, which was surrounded by the red energy.

The two of them stared each other down solemnly. Then they moved. Both leaped from their perches, their attacks roaring in their hands. This would decide everything, that much was certain. They drew closer and closer, friends turned enemies. Three seconds remained until the great moment.

Two seconds.

One second.

And here it was, the instant of truth.

**"Chidori!"  
>"Rasengan!"<strong>

The two Jutsu clashed with each other, their individual chakras exploding in all directions and mingling. Then the energies curved inward on themselves, forming a small, dark sphere, which began to grow, light spreading from its center.

Within the bright confines of that sphere of conflict, the two boys floated, a foot away from each other. The outcome of this battle would now be determined by the next action that they took. However, the outcomes of those actions could be altered by the slightest detail.

In other words...anything could have happened.

Anything did.

The force of the two attacks was so strong that the fabric of reality briefly tore, exposing the Primal Chaos beneath. Naruto's attack was the stronger, so the tear was larger at his end. With a cry of surprise, he was sucked into the stuff of creation before the rip closed over.

Sasuke blinked. He was standing on the surface of the water at the base of a waterfall. _Why am I loitering around here?_ he thought irritably, turning to keep walking, _I need to get to the border! It's odd, though...why do I have these injuries? Did I fight someone? Was it Naruto?_ He stopped, shaking his head in confusion, trying to clear his head. "Naruto? What the hell kind of name is that?" He put it out of his mind and kept running.

(?)

Naruto couldn't even scream as the Chaos ate through him. It was painful beyond anything he'd felt before as parts of him melted away to nothingness. Still, the first time he screamed, his vocal cords had been burned out, along with his tongue. His eyes had long since been destroyed, but somehow he could still see the roiling, endless colors. _Is this where it ends?_ he thought, _I fight with the teme, somehow blow a hole in the world, and end up being dissolved by some weird stuff?_ A deep sense of self-disappointment filled his heart as he thought of all the people back home. _Sorry, Sakura-chan…I guess I broke my promise…_ But now, a sense of peace was coming over him. _Bushy-brow, I hope you gave that bone guy an ass-kicking. Chouji, if you died, I'll kick your fat ass back to life! Same to you, Neji. Shikamaru, you lazy bastard, you'd better make sure everyone gets home. Well, everyone except me, that is. Who else would I miss? Oh yeah, there's Hinata. I'm sorry I never got to talk to you much, but maybe…could we have been friends? I would have liked that, I think; you were a nice person. You know, it doesn't hurt so much anymore._ Little did Naruto realize, but the Chaos had almost entirely eaten him away. _Huh, I should probably breathe sometime. Oh wait, my lungs are being eaten, never mind. Hey Kyuubi, you know you can probably get free in here, right? This stuff feels a lot like your chakra, so it might make you stronger._ Naruto felt a faint burning around where his stomach used to be. _Ha. I knew you wouldn't resist the chance to leave. It's alright though, I'm dying anyway and there's no one to hurt here._

When the great Nine-Tailed Fox finally burst free of the prison holding him within the boy, Naruto had been dissolved almost entirely. All that was left was the headband. _No! I won't let this go!_ He thought, suddenly defiant. With more concentration than he'd ever mustered in his life, he enveloped the headband with his consciousness, making it the center of his being and shielding it from the corrosive stuff around him.

"**It's useless,"** The Kyuubi pointed out in a bored voice, **"The Chaos here is wearing your soul away. Once you're gone, that little scrap of metal goes too."**

_I don't care! This thing shows that I am- was! –a Konoha ninja! If I'm gonna be erased, that's what I'll be before I go! I am a Konoha Shinobi! I'm…I'm…Who…who am I?_ The consciousness and soul formerly known as Naruto was starting to disburse, losing its sense of self.

The fox shook his head and turned to walk away. **"Fool,"** It muttered, **"All that talk and now you can't even remember your own-"** He stopped as a flickering feeling of numbness cut through his mind. **"W-what? This place is affecting me too! But that's impossible, I can't be taken apart like this-"** Another shock caused him to turn. **"No…"** Pale gray chains were extending from the ruined soul behind him and wrapping around his body, pulling tighter. With a thrill of horror, the Kyuubi realized what was happening. Even though the seal had been broken, the Shinigami's power was still binding their souls together. If Naruto stopped existing, he, the Great Kurama, would not go to the Death-God's stomach. No, he'd follow the boy very closely into oblivion. **"NO!"** He grabbed the tiny headband with the soul still on it. **"I WON'T GO BACK TO THE DARK!"** The Kyuubi roared with rage, and the Chaos around him responded; it gathered in front of his maw, forming a large, very potent ball and mixing with his youki. **"Bijuudama!" (Tailed Beast ball)** The orb of focused Chaos-youki exploded in a straight line as the ninth Bijuu vented his rage before him. The barrier of reality could not stand against the assault.

(9780441?015382 AKA Raven House)

[POV Change]

Just once, I want to be able to visit my own home without something going awfully wrong. I'd blame Fate for this, but since I know that they can't control my thread, I guess I'm stuck with the blame for this one again. I mean, one moment I'm lying down, trying to sleep (As usual, I can't), the next, there's an explosion so powerful the _sound_ throws me out of my bed before the tremors can.

"Chaos and Discord!" I yelled, stumbling out of my room. I had to yell to even hear myself, "Mel, you still there?"

Melchior, my blue web-goblin familiar, ran up, looking a nice sky color. "Here, boss!" he shouted. Then, "Who did you piss off this time?"

I put on my most offended face. "Nobody!" I said indignantly, then amended, "Recently. At least, no one who'd make an explosion to get in."

"What about Eris?"

"I have not pissed off Eris lately." My voice was decidedly proud at that accomplishment.

Mel didn't look convinced, but at that moment, the faun-butler Haemun came running up, wearing one of his usual horrible Hawaiian shirts and looking alarmed. "Master Ravirn, there's a giant fox standing at the shore! It's speaking in Japanese so I can't quite understand it, but I think it's saying something about a soul."

Well, crap. There went my peaceful vacation.

When I'd gotten my clothes on, I went as quickly as was possible without looking like I was panicking. While I may have moved out of this place a while ago, Raven House was still my home; the place I'd brought into being from my subconscious. I was the king here. I was in charge while I was present. I was...

I was staring up at _the_ largest fox I had ever seen. "Sweet Necessity," I groaned, "Why does this always happen to me?"

Don't get me wrong, I'm no stranger to giant animals. Hell, I leased this house out to Cerberus, as well as the Fenris Wolf, to use when I was out of the pantheoverse, and they were each large enough to eat me. Also, I was on speaking terms with Jormungand, who was so large he could girdle the earth. While this huge vulpine was nowhere near as big as the Midgard Serpent, it certainly looked ferocious enough to punch out Cerberus with one of its very human-looking hands. Also, anything that could blow up the Primal Chaos was definitely something that shouldn't be messed with.

The three-headed canine in question was facing down the fox. The right Doberman head, Bob, was snarling and barking in challenge. The middle Rottweiler head, Dave, and the left Mastiff, Mort, were both regarding the potential intruder suspiciously. Mort saw me first. **"Oh good, there you are,"** he grunted, slightly relieved.

**"You know, you really should tell us when you're having a friend over,"** Dave said dryly, **"It's not polite to have them just crash in uninvited. Bob, shut up,"** He added to his subordinate head.

The Doberman gave one last growl, glaring at me. **"I don't know how, but I just know this is your fault!"**

I rolled my eyes. "Look, I know attract trouble like you attract fleas-"

**"Hey!"**

"But for once, I had nothing to do with this. I think." I turned to look the nine-tailed fox in its vast red eye. There was no need to alarm it unnecessarily, so I kept my sunglasses in place. "Sorry for ignoring you," I said courteously, "But would you mind telling us why you're here?"

There was a look of uncertainty in those eyes. **"O ningen dake nani o itte iru?" (Just what are you saying, human?)** it asked in a deep, rumbling voice.

Oh, right. Haemun had mentioned that it spoke Japanese. Fortunately, I had a translator on hand. "Hey Mel, you still here?" I asked, not turning my head. Looking away from this thing could be disastrous.

"Against my better judgment, boss, yeah." The blue web-goblin muttered from behind my legs.

"Don't call me boss," I said distractedly, "Can you rig up something to help with communication?"

He thought for a moment, his brow scrunched up. "Sure. Just say the word, boss," he said, his scratchy voice sounding contemplative. With his upgrade to the multiverse's first Quantum Laptop, Mel had become rather good at coding his own spells over the years. Much better than I'd been; all I had to do was put a name to them, like now. While Mel was an AI with free will, he still liked me to give him the old commands.

I thought for a moment. "Er...alright, got it. Melchior. **Tower of Babel,** Please." I had at long last gotten used to substituting the voluntary 'please' command for the old compulsory command 'execute.' It was much more polite, and showed that I respected Melchior as my equal and partner, which I did.

My partner rolled his eyes at me. "Way to be original," he said sarcastically, then, in a flat voice, **"Executing."** He began whistling a rather simple code, though a bit long.

I felt a tingling in my ears and throat as the spell took effect. I cleared my throat and spoke to the fox. "Sorry about that, but I couldn't understand what you were saying," I explained, "May I have the pleasure of knowing whom I am speaking to?"

This seemed to please the beast. **"I am the Kyuubi no Yoko,"** it growled, **"About time someone showed me respect. And who are you, human?"**

Great. An arrogant one. Best be careful. "My name is Ravirn, Kyuubi...san? But I must add that I am not a human; I'm a demideity, as well as a Power of Chaos."

The vulpine seemed taken aback. **"A demideity, you say? What does that mean? And I suspect that whatever a Power of Chaos is, it has something to do with the fact that your chakra is much like the stuff I was just in." **I explained that being a demideity meant that I was descended from one or more of the Greek Gods. I had no idea what chakra was, and Kyuubi seemed resigned when I said as much. **"I see. I've come to another world entirely. No matter; it seems I must start from the beginning."**

Haemun, anticipating my needs as always, brought out a couple of chairs for me and Mel. Cerberus had loped off, losing interest.

The great fox told us about a world where all humans possessed an energy within them called chakra. They could mold that energy within them to perform supernatural feats, and the people who learned to do so were called Shinobi; it sounded a lot like the heavily processed and refined Chaos that was used to power the mweb.

**"However, before the humans learned how to harness their chakra, there was a demon that roamed the world, causing devastation and ruin wherever it went. It was known as the Juubi, or Ten-Tails."**

"Why, did it actually have ten tails?" asked Mel jokingly.

Kyuubi just blinked at him, causing my partner to gulp and shrink a bit. **"Yes, it did,"** it said, **"That's why it was called that. Anyway, one day, a human known as the Sage of Six Paths appeared out of nowhere. He had discovered how to manipulate his own chakra and was attracting quite a following as he taught others to do the same. He faced the Juubi and sealed it into himself."**

I wasn't quite sure I'd heard that right. "He sealed it into himself? Could you run that by me again?"

The fox lay it's long head on its forelegs. **"It's exactly as I say. He took the giant chakra demon and sealed it into his own body. The problem was, he knew that the beast would break free when he died, so he took some steps. On his deathbed, he took the Juubi's body and sealed it away physically, creating the moon."** Okay, so this Sage person sounded like a pretty powerful guy. Sealing away some terrible monster and creating the moon at the same time (While dying, no less!) sounded like something the gods would do. When I said as much, the fox snorted. **"You would think that, but that man was undoubtedly human. After he sealed away the body, he took its chakra and split it into the nine Bijuu, or Tailed Beasts. I myself am the strongest, with my nine magnificent tails."** Here, it swished its nine long tails through the air, looking proud of itself. It went on to explain, though not in detail, how the Sage named each of the new Bijuu, and then how each beast came to be sealed inside humans belonging to each of the five 'great villages.' I didn't interact with humans much anymore, but I could respect a race that could seal nine beings like this fox. Just sitting where I was, I could feel the sheer _ power_ Kyuubi gave off.

"What about you?" I asked, "Were you sealed as well? I mean, you're obviously free now, but..."

The chakra demon growled, causing the ground to rumble. **"As loath as I am to admit it, I was indeed sealed within humans myself,"** it admitted, before adding, **"I, however, only had **_**three**_** Jinchuuriki counting this one, which is more than I can say for the others. Shukaku, the Ichibi, got sealed many times, with his soul being stuffed in a kettle in between."** The smug glee in the fox's voice told me it didn't like this 'Shukaku' very much.

"So what happened to your hosts?" I asked.

It gave a vulpine shrug. **"My first container, a woman called Mito Uzumaki, would have died of old age, so I was transferred to the next one, which caused the first one to die anyway. Then my second host, Kushina Uzumaki, became the wife of that detestable Yondaime, Namikaze, and got her fool self pregnant."**

The note of resentment in its voice got my attention. "Who's the Yondaime? Also, what exactly was foolish about her getting pregnant?"

The Kyuubi explained that the village leader was known as a 'Kage,' and that the Yondaime was the fourth 'Hokage' of the village Kushina fought for. **"When a female Jinchuuriki gets pregnant, it causes the seal holding the Bijuu to weaken temporarily. On the eve her child was born, I made a bid for freedom. However, someone was waiting. A man with an orange mask; he stole Kushina right out from underneath Namikaze's nose and fully extracted me from her body. Such a thing would kill any normal human, but Kushina's Uzumaki blood allowed her to survive. But then..."** It roared, suddenly furious, which made my ears ring, **"That masked man used a Sharingan on me and took me over! Me! The Kyuubi no Yoko, forced to do the bidding of yet another goddamn human! He made me attack the village, Konohagakure, but then,"** Kyuubi growled, **"That blond baka, Minato Namikaze, sealed me away again, into his and Kushina's son no less. But it wasn't just any seal, oh no. He summoned the Shinigami itself to help, and I lost my Yin half entirely."**

"Shinigami?" asked Mel, paling at the implication, "Stop me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean 'Death-God?'"

I made a mental note to never mess with this particular race of humans. Not only could they seal away powerhouses like Kyuubi, they could summon a God of Death too?

**"Yes,"** Said the fox irritably, **"The result is that my Yang half of my soul, the one you see before you, is tied to the soul of my current host, Naruto Uzumaki. Should he die, or his soul be destroyed, I would follow."**

"And where is this Naruto Uzumaki, if you're standing here?" I inquired. I already had suspicions, of course, but I could have been wrong. After all, the fox had blasted his way into the Dec-Locus from the Primal Chaos...

The Kyuubi held out a hand-like paw. A smaller paw made of a strange orange energy extended out toward me, holding something. I noticed that it, along with the fox itself (It was getting really annoying to not know what gender it was), were made from the same energy. The similarities were faint, but this 'youki' stuff was definitely a variant of Primal Chaos. Then I took notice of what the arm was holding. It was a thin scrap of metal, engraved with what looked like a cross between a spiral and an arrow. There didn't seem to be anything special about it. "What am I looking at here?" I asked, "I mean, it's a nice engraving and all, but what significance does it have?"

Melchior was squinting at the bit of metal curiously. "If I use my inner eye, I can sort of see something there..." he muttered.

**"The stubborn gaki wouldn't let it go,"** said Kyuubi, **"To him, that headband proved that he had triumphed and become a shinobi. As if such titles mattered. When the Chaos out there dissolved his entire body, he wanted to make sure that thing would be the last to go."**

That sounded ominous. I opened my own inner eye to see what Mel was talking about. "Powers and Incarnations!" I swore, jumping back. Whoever this Naruto Uzumaki kid was, stubborn didn't even begin to describe him. He'd bound his consciousness to that ordinary metal piece, long after his body had been destroyed. I could understand the difficulty of such a thing; after all, I myself had been dissolved in the Primal Chaos before. The first time I'd pulled myself back together out of sheer luck. The second time I'd had my sword, Occam, to keep my sense of self sufficiently intact. But this boy, this _mortal,_ if I was understanding this right, had managed to survive even for a few minutes in the Chaos by clinging to an ordinary scrap of metal! I was in awe. A person who was as hard to kill as me is someone I'd tip my hat to (If I had one), and Naruto Uzumaki, whoever he was, was definitely in that category, from where I stood at least. "What do you want us to do with him, Kyuubi-san?" I asked, gently taking the ensouled metal from the energy arm and looking it over reverently, "Also, do you have another name that we can call you by? Sorry, but it's getting rather wearing for me to refer to you as 'fox' in my head."

The fox (see?) huffed irritably. **"The name that the Sage gave me is Kurama. As for what I want,"** it flared its nine tails, **"I refuse to have my immortality bound by the soul of an already-dead brat. I, the strongest of the Bijuu, would be the laughingstock of all the others. Ravirn...in this world of yours, do you have a method for fusing two souls together? After all, even the Shinigami cannot bind together a single soul."**

"I...wait, what?" I asked, not sure if I'd heard right, "you want to merge your soul with this guy?" To tell the truth, I had no idea how to even write a program like that. My expertise lay in loopholes and the hacking and cracking of others' codes; the only person in this universe I knew who dealt with souls was Hades, and there was no way I was going to steal from him again, not even for this giant Chaos-Fox.

Just as I was about to tell Kurama that I could not help him, Melchior suddenly got my attention. "Hey boss, incoming email with an attachment."

This could _not_ be a coincidence. "Who's it from?" I asked, resigned to the worst.

"It's from NecessityNecessity..." Oh no. Not the dreaded 'dot-dot-dot' address. Necessity, the Fate of the Gods herself, was getting herself involved in this mess. Persephone, I know you like me and all, but could you please stop throwing all this crap at me? I had Mel switch to his laptop form so I could get a look at the attachment that had come with the email. In typical Necessity fashion, there was no explanation as to why she'd sent it; there was no need. I opened the file and found the blueprints for a program that would do exactly what Kurama was asking for. I looked it over, analyzing it fully, letting the details come to me. As expected of Necessity, the spell was designed to only work on those two specific souls and was ironclad. Towards the end of the code, however, I noticed a slight problem. A half a section was missing, as if it required another program to work. I scrolled back up and saw, just before the missing segment, a statement allowing for 'a onetime use of administrative abilities for the purpose of this spell only.' The diamond circles in the back and palm of my right hand throbbed when I read that.

**"What is it?"** Kurama asked as I looked up.

I tried to smile, though I think it came out a bit strained. "Good news, Kurama-san. My...boss, for lack of a better term, has just sent me a spell that will allow me to help you."

The nine-tailed fox sat up straighter. **"Really?"** it asked, looking unsure, **"I was not expecting this, but you can really do it?"**

"Yeah," I said, getting ready to run before it could turn around and get mad for what I was going to say, "But there's a slight catch."

The massive eyebrow ridges furrowed suspiciously. **"What catch would that be?"**

I gulped. "Er, well, the program requires me to use some...influence, you might say, to determine the outcome of the procedure."

**"Meaning?"**

Mel switched back to his Goblin form. "What featherbrain here is trying to tell you is that you'll have to rely on him entirely to see which one of your souls ends up being the dominant one," he said exasperatedly.

**"What?"** roared the Kyuubi.

"Hey, don't look at me like that!" I said defensively, "That's the only way the spell will work. I doubt Necessity will just let me write one that specifically gives you the choice, even if I had that kind of skill."

Kurama looked down at me, looking angry and doubtful. **"How do I know you won't give control over to the boy?"** it asked.

I just shrugged. "To tell the truth, you don't. Hell, even I don't know what I'm going to do when it comes down to it." I pulled down my sunglasses and looked the Kyuubi in the eye, letting him see the Chaos that churned where my eyeballs used to be. "I think the better question is, are you going to go through with it anyway?"

I've faced down beings ten times stronger than me before. I hadn't necessarily beaten them, but I hadn't been killed by them either. This giant fox was just another such being. I heard Melchior suck in a breath as Kurama stared into eyes that were no longer there. Finally, it grunted. **"Very well, Ravirn,"** it said, **"Come what may, at least I won't be able to say it will not interesting."**

"That's the spirit!"

Mel shook his head in disgust. "Yeah, we're well acquainted with that 'spirit.' Resignation."

A short while later, we were standing in the large open field behind Raven House. I had Melchior whistle up a trio of lasers and cut a giant ritual circle into the turf in preparation for the spell. I gestured to Kurama to get into the middle of the circle, placing the metal plate with Naruto's soul inside when it did so. **"Now what?"** asked the destructive entity.

I closed my not-eyes and drew on my store of anger, which summoned my Fury-blood-and-diamond, four-edged sword, Occam. "Now we begin. Melchior, you got the program ready?"

"Downloaded and ready to go, boss!"

"Mel?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't call me boss.

Mel smirked at the old joke. "Sure thing, boss."

Sometimes I don't know why I even bother. "Alright, Kurama-san, brace yourself. This is probably gonna hurt. Melchior. **Spirit-Meld,** please."

Melchior's green eyes dimmed. **"Executing procedure,"** he said in a monotone. The circle began glowing with a red light. **"Analyzing soul components."** Kurama took on a blue aura, as did the headband. **"Dissolving corporeal boundaries."** Here, Melchior began whistling in a self-harmony, the two strings of code undulating high and low before meeting in a 'middle' tone and staying there for a second. Both Kyuubi and headband dissolved, the two blue auras mingling into one big cloud. The circle switched from red to blue. **"CodeSpell required for final fusion."**

Now it was time for me to go to work. I wrapped the fingers of my left hand around Occam's blade and tugged. The four edges easily sliced through my skin; however, instead of drawing blood, my special sword drew Chaos from my veins, which quickly coated the blade. With concentration, I reversed my grip on the sword so the blade pointed downward and approached the glowing ritual circle. I took careful aim at a particular mark in the boundary and stabbed the Chaos-laced tip into the earth. Power sang through the blade and resonated in my bones, causing the feathers I didn't have to stand on end. Occam possessed the ability to show me potential futures as if I was Necessity herself and choose which path to follow. My vision split. In one future, I chose wrong and the whole thing exploded, killing me. In another future, I chose to make Kyuubi's soul dominant, dissolving Naruto Uzumaki's soul. However, since Kurama was only half of a proper soul, it would be unable to resist the pull of its other half and be consumed by some great entity, who I guessed was the Shinigami. In another, I chose to override Kurama's soul in favor of the boy. Without the fox's strange energy, Naruto's soul would pass on, possibly to Hades, which I did not want on my conscience. Finally, I saw a future that looked promising. The Raven whispered in my ear, telling me to go for it, and for once, I agreed. No point in wasting time. Reaching inward, I opened my link to the Primal Chaos and called on the shadow of The Raven to enforce my will. I made my choice.

I only hope I chose right.

[POV change]

(Scene change: Naruto-verse)

Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage, was dying. _I knew this was coming,_ he thought frustratedly, _I saw that this would happen the moment that bastard came near me. Damn it all!_

His body floated in front of a giant stone statue of a head with nine eyes. A stream of youki was flowing from his mouth and nose as Akatsuki drained the Sanbi from his body. When the process was complete, he would die. Two giant hands stood on either side of him, emerging from the ground. Ten figures stood on each outstretched finger, but only two of them were actually present. The rest were all holographic projections.

"Man, how much longer is this gonna take, un?" Asked a man with blond hair and one visible eye.

"We're almost finished," their leader replied. The only distinguishing thing about his projection was that his eyes were a washed-out purple color and possessed a number of concentric circles. "Do not lose concentration now. If we fail now we'll lose the Jinchuuriki too early and have to wait for the Sanbi to reappear in a few years."

"Hmph, like the Kyuubi?" asked a figure with green and red eyes, "I heard it's Jinchuuriki got himself killed by your own brother, Itachi."

A man with red Sharingan eyes said nothing.

The tallest among them sighed. "I know! It totally sucks; now we'll have to wait who knows how long for it to come back so we can catch it ourselves. A fun fight, but I'm not gonna look forward to fighting it myself."

A loud, harsh birdcall rang through cavern.

"What was that?" asked the sole female in the group.

"Itachi, did you let one of your crows in here?"

"...No..."

A particularly strangely shaped silhouette spoke up. "...Guys?"

"What is it, Zetsu?" asked the leader.

'Zetsu' began speaking, his voice switching between a curious, lighter voice that used normal Kanji and Kana, and a rougher, darker voice that only used Katakana. **"I think we might have a problem.** I mean, I only really noticed when that sound started, but something's up with the Jinchuuriki. **The Sanbi's not coming out anymore."**

It was true. The flow of youki into the statue had stopped entirely, as if it was frozen.

Yagura felt something, as if Isobu was attempting to drag itself back into his body. But the seal was gone. That meant it was aiming for his very soul. _If it'll get me out of here, I'll do whatever it takes!_ he thought angrily. In his head, he heard another cry, as if whatever bird it belonged to was urging him on. With a huge effort, Yagura stretched out an arm, took hold of the chakra and pulled. Pain roared through him as the Sanbi was sucked out of the Gedo Mazo (Outer Path Demonic Statue).

"What?" asked the leader in alarm, "Deidara, Sasori, stop him!"

Yagura fell from a great height, but only faintly felt the impact of his body on the ground. All he felt was pain as his soul melded with that of Isobu. His body began to fluctuate rapidly. Yagura. Isobu. Human. Bijuu. Yondaime Mizukage. Sanbi no Kyodaigame. Zero. One.

Neither...

Both.

"What the hell?" asked the blond man, looking at their target, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing, Sasori-dana?"

The hunchbacked masked man next to him just growled, "I see it, you fool."

Yagura stood, shimmering with a pale blue-green aura. Above him stood a replica of the Sanbi, made of the same energy. Both bodies spoke at once. **"Catch me again if you dare!"** Then he was only Yagura again, running for the exit.

The blond began throwing clay birds and grasshoppers at the vessel. "Dammit, you're not getting away!" he yelled.

"Like hell I'm not!" Yagura dived out of the way of the explosives. He touched down in a roll, incidentally coming to a stop next to a puddle. Glancing at it, the scarred man felt a pull in the back of his mind, along with another bird cry.

A scorpion-like bladed tail lashed down on his head from the hunchbacked man. "How annoying. Don't get distracted, Mizukage-_sama,"_ the man muttered sarcastically.

Yagura's eyes widened and he lunged at the puddle. As his hand touched the water, he experienced a strange sensation. It was as if all the water in the world was his gateway...

Sasori's tail smashed down on the stone floor where Yagura had just been standing. "What? Where'd he go?" The Mizukage had vanished into thin air, leaving only ripples in the shallow puddle.

"This is troubling," the leader said darkly, his purple eyes narrowed, "Whatever jutsu he used to escape, I could not see it."

"L-leader-sama?"

He shook his head. "Forget about the Sanbi for now. He's alive, so we'll be able to capture him again. For now, we should let ourselves disappear for a bit. Kakuzu, Hidan, consider your mission for the Nanabi postponed."

The members all grumbled, but their projections faded away.

In Amegakure, Pain turned to a man with an orange, spiraling mask. "There is a problem, Madara-dono...something unexplainable happened and the Sanbi escaped."

A single Sharingan glowed from the mask's eye-hole. "What about Yagura? Is he dead?"

"I'm afraid not. He somehow countered the Genryu Kyuufujin (Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals) and sealed the Sanbi back in himself, then escaped using an unknown method."

Madara cursed. "Damn. On top of losing the Kyuubi, we couldn't even seal the Sanbi. This is a major setback. Was there anything odd that happened beforehand?" he asked shrewdly.

The man with piercings shook his head. "There was a birdcall just before it happened, but that could just be a coincidence."

However, the mastermind took a step closer. "What kind of bird? A Raven?"

"It could be," Pain said neutrally, "Why, what's so significant about a raven's call?"

The red eye changed for an instant. Honed by his bloodline, Nagato's Deva Path saw the red become overtaken by a dull silver color, pupil and all, like a smoky mirror, before it was gone. "It's nothing," the masked man said lowly, "Just remembering...an old enemy of mine."

.

AN: And there you have it. Here's the first chapter of my newest fic. Like Pen to the Paper, it's the first fic _ever_ on this site to be a crossover of Naruto and Ravirn. I hope you like my ideas.

Summary time:

1. First thing you should know. Even though this is a CoG fic, in terms of Chronology, the Gormim have not formed as a group yet. There are only UDOM, who may or may not appear.  
>2. Naruto and Sasuke fought in the valley of the end. In all the other fics I read of this fight, some little detail affects the final outcome. So in this, all that potential 'something' built up and tore the universe, causing Naruto to disappear from the universe.<br>3. Since Sasuke was the closest to the event when it happened, Naruto was wiped from his memory. Other people will remember who Naruto is, but for Sasuke, Naruto Uzumaki is just a bunch of meaningless words.  
>4. None of the Bijuu will have genders.<br>5. It felt more accurate to write things from Ravirn's point of view in a first-person way. It's how the books do it, so that's how I'll do it. Not all the time, granted, but most of the time, and only when it's for Ravirn.  
>6. Ravirn's world is like this. His normal world is a Multiverse (Each little world is known as a Dec (Decision) Locus), in which the Greek Gods are real. Ravirn is a descendant of a Greek deity (more on that in a later chapter) and was named as a Power of Chaos, known as the Raven. If you'll notice my typing, sometimes I capitalize Raven and sometimes I don't. It kinda symbolizes the significance of what a person is talking about.<br>7. In Ravirn's world, there are alternate worlds known as Pantheoverses, or MythOSes. At the end of his series, Ravirn goes live in a MythOS where the Norse Gods are real, but in my fic, he still visits his old home, Raven House.  
>8. In Ravirn-verse, Magic and Technology have combined, so spells are done by whistling in code. The whole thing is normally powered by this thing called the mweb, which is like a magical internet connecting all the Dec Loci. Another way of doing magic is by tapping into the Primal Chaos that runs between worlds.<br>9. The form that Primal Chaos takes on varies from Pantheoverse to Pantheoverse. In the Naruto-verse, Chaos is like a combination chakra, youki, and natural energy. _Primal_ Chaos, no matter what form, is deadly to most beings. Only beings like Ravirn can work with it reliably, and even then must be careful.  
>10. Ravirn has a history of pissing off incredibly powerful beings but always manages to surviveescape. Not only that, but he managed to come back from ceasing to exist. Twice! The fact that Naruto, who is a human, managed to cling to existence like he did, is an impressive feat that Ravirn can relate to.  
>11. Spells, codes, and programs are basically the same. It's really difficult to remember complex codes, so sorcerers create familiars to remember for them. Melchior is Ravirn's familiarpartner, a web-goblin. He has the ability to turn into a laptop, and was upgraded in Book 3 to be able to work spells with more complexity.  
>12. Also in Book 3, Ravirn's sword gave him the ability to see branching futures and act accordingly, though the ability was only a one-time thing. Now it's just a cool, really sharp sword that's fused with his hand.<br>13. As a mark of Ravirn's status as a Chaos power, his eyes have become replaced by Chaos.  
>14. Kurama has fused with Naruto's soul. However, since the Kyuubi was once a part of the Juubi with the other Bijuu, this sets off a chain reaction with the others.<br>15. If any of you read the Ravirn series, you should recognize what just happened with Tobi's eye. Also, I know he's not Madara, but nobody else knows that.  
>16. Naruto will eventually be returning to his own world.<p>

And that should wrap things up. Sorry about making the summary so long, but I wanted you guys to know what Ravirn's all about. Hopefully the next chapter will explain more.

Also, in case you did not read the summary, this fic is going to be NaruHina. This is non-negotiable. That is all.

Please be sure to leave a review before you go.

North South


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Alright, here goes nothing. Chapter 2, Execute!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Ravirn

"Speech"  
><em>Thoughts<br>_Text  
><strong>BijuuDeity/Power  
><strong>**Jutsu/Technique/Spell**

Chapter 2: Point of After-effect

Naruto groaned. His body felt like it was on fire. Not a pleasant feeling. His mind was in turmoil. One moment, he was remembering his life as Naruto Uzumaki, the next the memories of Kurama were flickering through his head. The latter memories were recent ones. He could understand what had happened, what had almost happened to him. From the fact that he felt human, he guessed what Ravirn had done. He was lying on something soft, possibly a bed. He opened his eyes, wincing slightly at the bright light coming in through a window. "Oh good, you're awake. I was getting bored."

He sat up and looked around. Almost immediately he spotted a small, blue creature sitting on the edge of the bed, eyeing him with beady black eyes. "You're…Melchior, right?" he asked. His voice sounded rough from a lack of water and a bit deeper otherwise.

"Yep. The boss told me to make sure you woke up," the web-goblin said with a shrug, "Does your body feel alright?"

Naruto shrugged, wincing slightly. "Well, it _feels,_ so that's good, I think."

The blue creature chuckled. "Oh, good. I made that body myself. I had to do some guesswork, based on your new soul, so I was a bit worried that I might have gotten something wrong; otherwise the boss would have nearly blown himself up for nothing."

Naruto started at that. "Was it that dangerous?"

"Yeah, but don't worry about it, the boss's fine. We've dealt with worse things before."

Somehow, that did not soothe Naruto. He turned to get out of the bed, noting how strange his body felt as he moved. When he stood up, he had to go up on his toes for a moment to make sure he didn't overbalance. He was struck by how tall he was. While he couldn't compare them for obvious reasons, he could remember that his old body was nowhere near this tall. He swayed unsteadily, but remained upright. Dimly, he noticed someone had thoughtfully provided him with a pair of boxers, so he was able to see the hard muscle that dominated his body.

Melchior watched the newcomer unconcernedly. "Not bad," he said, "Ravirn usually falls on his face when he wakes up."

"No I don't," said a grumpy voice, "Tisiphone usually catches me." Naruto turned to see a young man (Ravirn, some part of his new brain pointed out) standing at the door, arms crossed. He wore an outfit of green and black leather, and had a dagger belted to one hip, as well as some kind of strange weapon under his arm. He had discarded the sunglasses he'd worn earlier, revealing the two holes in reality within his eye sockets. His skin was a dead white, contrasting with his black hair. Naruto also saw that his ears were pointed. "How do you feel?" Ravirn asked abruptly.

The blond shrugged. "Like I told Melchior-san, I feel alright. I don't really get how I have a body, but it seems fine."

"That's not what I meant, but okay," the man muttered, his Chaos-filled eyes unblinking, "I'm sure you've got some questions."

Naruto scratched his head. "Less than you think. I can remember some of the stuff you told Kurama, though details would be nice. My first question is..." He took a deep breath. "Can you let me get some clothes?"

Ravirn winced slightly and nodded.

(Later)

{Ravirn POV}

After securing some clothes for Naruto from my closet (For some reason, the clothes provided were a bright orange) my new guest and I were seated on the lanai. After goggling at Haemun for a good five minutes, Naruto asked if we had ramen. The faun didn't even bat an eye and trotted off to get some food and drinks.

The boy stared after him until he was out of sight, then turned to me. "Okay, I'll bite. What is he?" he asked.

I told him that Haemun was a faun; more specifically, a house spirit that had been created by my subconscious, and that no, I didn't know why he wore those gods-awful shirts. Mel probably doesn't think I heard him snickering at my expense, but I totally did.

"So, you made all of this?" Naruto asked, gesturing around at the green and black marble house.

"Well, more like spawned it from my mind with no idea I was even doing it."

Melchior muttered something that sounded like, "Like always."

Naruto slurped up his noodles thoughtfully and asked about the gods. He explained that, apart from the names of certain techniques, there weren't really any gods, apart from the Shinigami, and he didn't seem to do anything much.

I gave him the abridged version and told him about how the Titans had first formed themselves out of the Primal Chaos, thus causing every last one of their descendants to have a connection with it. I explained that, after the Titans had been cast down by Zeus, the gods became forces that represented parts of the lives of all humanity. "On Olympus, there are two axes of power," I said, drawing an imaginary cross in the air. "All deities fall on or between these poles. On one axis, there's Creation, headed by Zeus, the God of the Skies and Lightning and all that stuff. At the other end, there's Destruction, which is headed by Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, which is where nearly all dead souls end up in this multi-verse. Not only that, the Underworld is _also_ called Hades."

"Why would he name it after himself?" Naruto asked, drinking down the broth in his bowl and asking Haemun for another bowl.

I just shrugged. "I guess he was that full of himself. Let me tell you, he was one nasty guy. If it weren't for some special circumstances, I would go down to Hades-the-place myself if I died, and Hades-the-God swore to slow-roast me over a spit for all eternity when that happened." I nodded in agreement at the grimace on Naruto's face, then continued. "Then there's the other axis, which lies perpendicular to the first. At one end, there's Order, which is headed by the Sisters of Fate," I tried not to scowl too much, "Clotho, who spins the Threads of Fate out of Chaos. Lachesis, who measures out the Thread of every human alive. Atropos, who cuts the Thread with her shears, ending every life." There was no holding back the bitterness and disgust in my voice.

"Sounds like you don't like Fate very much," the blond pointed out, sucking up one long noodle, "Can't say I blame you; this one guy I knew used to preach about how everyone was predetermined to either succeed or fail because of Fate. Then I kicked his ass and he got better."

I laughed, my black mood miraculously gone, and held up a hand for a high-five. "At least there's always _someone_ to fight the good fight!" When the high-five had been exchanged, I said, "Last, but not least, is Chaos, at the other pole. It's headed by Eris and Tyche, the Goddesses of Discord and Luck respectively. Although, from what I hear, Tyche is kinda out of the picture because of a distinct lack of intelligence, so it's mainly Eris who runs the show in the Chaos department." I shuddered. "Let me tell you, Naruto, that woman fits her role to a T."

"I take it you've met her," Naruto observed, smiling slightly.

Melchior grimaced. "The idiot can't stop running to her when there's trouble," he grumbled.

"Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures-"

"Yeah, can't get more desperate than that."

"-And at least I do more than hide under the table and hope she doesn't notice me," I finished my retort.

"No, you're too busy drooling over her like Fenris with a steak."

"That's not my fault and you know it." Seeing Naruto's apprehensive look, I quickly explained, "Eris likes turning on a whole lot of sex-appeal whenever someone comes to see her and drive people crazy, sometimes literally. Her whole existence is based on creating strife and, well, Discord. Hell, she started the famous Chicago Fire. Anyway, that's how everyone is aligned in this world, although people tend to belong between two of the poles."

{Normal POV}

Naruto had no idea what the Chicago Fire was, but this Eris lady sounded like a total psycho. "So, if that's how alignment is based, where do you belong, Ravirn-san? Chaos?"

Ravirn pointed at his eyes. "Yep. I'm relatively minor compared to the full Gods, but being a demideity means I can access the Chaos in my blood. When I was given my name as the Raven," the bitterness from before twisted his mouth, "I became able to tap that link more freely. I became the link, and some of my more chaotic traits came to the surface."

"By the way," the blond began, "I sorta remember you saying that being a demideity meant that you were descended from one of the gods. Who are you descended from?"

The dark-haired man turned his head away. "I was a member of the Houses of Fate as a descendant of Lachesis," he said quietly, "Until they took my name and exiled me. Although, on my father's side, my grandmother is Thalia, the Muse of Bucolic Humor, making me a product of Fate and Slapstick."

Naruto flinched and looked down. "Sorry," he mumbled apologetically. He could tell he'd dragged up some painful memories.

"Nah, it's alright. I'm glad to be out of that place. Even before I was named Raven, I was too unruly for my Grandmother (Well, add a couple hundred of Greats) Lachesis's tastes. Also, Chaos and Order are enemies, so I get to piss them off even more. Not only that, but it looks like you're a Power of Chaos yourself."

Naruto blinked. "Wait, really? How can you tell? I just thought that I'd been fused with Kurama."

"Well, you were fused using Chaos-power, and your body was forged from the Primal Chaos," Melchior pointed out, "I should know, it was my spells that helped with both. Not only that, but your eyes are like Ravirn's were after he remade himself the first time." He whistled a mirror into existence and gave it to Ravirn.

"The first time?" Naruto asked, taking the mirror from Ravirn.

Ravirn looked slightly sheepish. "Hades tried to kill me and I tried to take him down with me by flooding his office with Primal Chaos."

Naruto looked in the mirror and gawked. While he still had eyeballs, his pupils had become slitted (Possibly because of the Kyuubi) and swirled with Chaos. The two tiny slices of Chaos made the blue of his irises look slightly faded. For a moment he stared, fascinated. Then he looked up and said, "So, this whole Chaos-power thing...how does it work?"

The older of the two shrugged. "Well, it depends on your divinity. For me, it's exploiting loopholes in everything around me. Melchior's spells, if need be, can create things out of Chaos or tap the Primal Chaos directly."

"Oh, thanks for spoiling the surprise, boss," the blue web-goblin snarked.

"You're welcome. But while you'll have some sort of specialty, you'll also probably have some sort of ability inspired by Kurama, since you were fused."

Naruto looked interested. "Really?"

Melchior snorted. "Kid, Ravirn's just as clueless to this as you are. No one's _ever_ fused two souls together, let alone with Chaos like we did. If you want _my_ guess, Ravirn might actually be right for once, but you're also a Q-bit like me." He sipped at his drink and nodded.

The blond blinked blankly. "Q-bit? Okay, you've lost me; what's a Q-bit?"

Ravirn sighed and rejoined the conversation. "Well, in the language of computers, binary, there are only two signals or states: Zero or One. Binary consists of strings of either of these numbers, never any other. A Q-bit, or Quantum-bit, is much stranger; it can exist as a Zero, a One, both, or neither."

Naruto was completely lost at this point, but nodded slowly.

However, Ravirn was not fooled in the slightest, having been the same himself. "Why don't we demonstrate?" he asked. Melchior hopped up on the table as the dark-haired demideity cleared his throat. "Here's something that only Powers of Chaos can see. Melchior, **Transform to Laptop,** please."

To Naruto, Melchior was suddenly two different things. He was still sitting on the table, but overlapping with his image was a small, folding rectangular device. The strange sight only lasted for an instant, but Naruto saw it. Then the goblin was gone, leaving the rectangle alone on the table. "I think I get what you're saying…he can not only between two forms, but also use a form that is both at the same time." Then he blinked at what he'd just said. "Good god, I'm smart now! I could actually understand that; normally I'd have to see that a bunch of times and need an explanation to get it." Then Melchior's theory from earlier came back to him. "And you think I can do that too?"

In a flicker, Melchior switched back to web-goblin form as Ravirn nodded. "It does make since, since you were made from two fundamentally different beings. I must ask that you not try it here, though. I don't want my house blown up, even if I don't live here."

Naruto chuckled nervously. Then he frowned. "Wait, you don't live here, even though you made it from your mind?"

"That should tell you something about his mental state," Melchior said with a grin.

"Oh, screw you, Mel!"

"Sorry, boss, but you're not my type."

Ravirn smirked. "No, I guess not. You're more into a certain web-pixie."

Melchior's blue complexion darkened considerably and he sputtered while Ravirn pumped his fist in victory.

Naruto, however, looked at his ramen bowl, deep in thought. Now that he was alive and he thought about it, he was starting to miss his own home. What was going to happen back home. From what Ravirn said, he was in a different plane of reality entirely. "Ravirn-san," he said quietly, "Is it possible for me to go back home?"

Ravirn stopped at the question. "Why?" he asked. It was not a derisive question, he sounded genuinely curious.

"Because I still have precious people that I want to protect. Not only that, but there are other Jinchuuriki like me, according to Kurama's knowledge. There's some sort of organization that seems to be after the Bijuu, and they could be going after the others. Not only that, but I have friends who might be wondering what happened to me." Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Ravirn-san…you've done so much for me already…you've given me a chance to live again and told me so much. Will you help me get home?"

{Ravirn POV}

Once again I was shocked. This was far from the first time someone had asked me for help, but it was the first that someone had actually done it respectfully. It was…oddly gratifying. I wanted to stop and think about this, I really did, but the Raven saw a chance to wreak havoc and jumped on it with both hands…feet…whatever. The trickster was wearing my face and I grinned. "Sure, why not?" I said, patting Naruto on the head, "I'm long overdue to endanger myself again. Besides, I don't think I've ever deliberately pissed off a group of humans before."

The look of relief on Naruto's face made me feel like I'd made the right choice. I was in for a world of hurt; I'd be a fool to think otherwise, but to see someone actually appreciate my help made it almost worth it.

Melchior groaned. "Great. Just when I thought we'd left those days behind us, you go and leap straight into another death-trap situation. Thanks, boss."

"You know you don't have to come, Mel. You can go back to Tisiphone if you want."

The blue web-goblin looked horrified. "Oh no you don't! I'm your partner, and partners do _not_ get sent to tell redheads with hair-trigger tempers that their boyfriend has gone gallivanting off on a suicidal quest. I'm going with you. It's much safer."

"I feel so loved," I sighed, putting a hand to my chest. Then I said regretfully, "You have a point, though, someone has to tell her where I'm going."

"Actually," said a female voice, "There is much more that must be done, my dark bird."

I tried not to jump as Persephone, the incarnation of the mweb, manifested herself on the lanai. Tall, with pale skin and the beauty typical of all goddesses, Persephone was distinct in the pain and agony hidden deep within her gray eyes.

Naruto crouched suspiciously, a blue energy flaring in his hands, but I stopped him. "Greetings, my lady," I said, "What brings your attention to my humble abode?"

Persephone smiled thinly. "Necessity, of course." She looked at Naruto with slight approval. "I am glad to see that the program I sent you worked. As Ravirn correctly guessed, you are now a Power of Chaos, young Naruto."

Naruto relaxed slightly while I spoke up. "That's not all you're here for," I stated, drawing a guilty look from the former prisoner of Hades, "He has to be named, doesn't he?"

"Named?" the blond kid looked confused, "What, like the Raven?"

"Excuse me! Raven's _my_ name!"

Persephone held up a hand, silencing us both. "In a manner of speaking," she said, "There is a name for the Power you shall become, but as you are now, you are not…complete."

Naruto frowned thoughtfully. "My Yin half is still missing. Is that it?"

"Yes, but I was speaking of a larger incompletion. Even whole, the Kyuubi is not complete, is it?"

I watched the boy's face. Brief confusion, followed by total shock. "You mean- you mean the others…?"

She nodded.

Now Naruto was frowning, clearly thinking about something. Finally, he asked slowly, "What is it that you want me to do, exactly?"

"You will not return to your world just yet," Persephone said almost instantly. At the look on Naruto's face, however, she put up her hand again and continued, "Rest assured, you will be able to go back, but not now. You must first learn how to control your abilities as a Power of Chaos." I had never taught someone before and had no idea how to go about doing it. Persephone, omniscient being that she is, apparently read my mind, because she looked at me and said, "If you would consent to, Ravirn, you will be sent to young Naruto's world in order to inform the leader there that he is still alive. They will need to know"

This did not bode well. "Will Mel be coming with me?" I heard myself ask.

Before she could say anything, the web-goblin rolled his eyes. "Of course I am," he snapped, "Someone's got to make sure you don't get your stupid self killed."

"Then it's settled," she said firmly, "I must ask that you get ready. I have taken measures to ensure that you will be taken to the right place, Ravirn."

"Nice to know someone's making plans for me," I muttered, "Where will Naruto be going? And how much time will he be spending before he comes back?"

Persephone smiled with a hint of mischief. "I think Odin can handle some more Chaos for three years."

(Naruto-verse, Konohagakure)

The Godaime Hokage was in a foul mood. This was nothing new; she'd been prone to snapping at people for the past two months, ever since one Naruto Uzumaki had disappeared on the failed retrieval of Sasuke Uchiha. There was no doubt in anyone's minds that he was dead. Her drinking had increased, though she hadn't been able to do any gambling. Everybody these days dreaded coming into her office to give a report. Nobody ever even thought of bringing up Naruto while in her presence for fear that she'd hit them with her super-strength.

All in all, it was a typical day for Tsunade, filing paperwork interspersed with drinking from her stash of sake (There was always another one that Shizune couldn't find). However, as she picked up the next sheet, she shook her head to clear it. The sheet was different from the others she'd had to sign. It was made of what looked like animal hide, and the words on it were in a strange language. Even the alphabet was different; all the same, Tsunade found that she could understand it. It was a C-ranked mission request, a time-sensitive one at that. It was asking that a single team from Konohagakure no Sato be sent to a certain point on the Hi no Kuni border in order to meet a 'person of importance' who had 'information that could prove beneficial to the village.'

The distance was great enough that the team would have to spend a couple of nights away from the village. What really drew her attention was the signature. Instead of a name, there was what looked like a nonsensical equation. An ellipsis (three dots) over a question mark. Next to it, in parentheses, was the letter 'P.'

Tsunade had no idea what to make of this strange bit of paperwork. Somehow, though, she knew it wasn't a joke. It had an air about it that told her that this was perfectly serious.

With a sigh, she pulled out a blank sheet of paper and started to write down a translation. There was no telling whether anyone else would be able to understand such gibberish. She only hoped that whoever got this mission didn't end up dead, like Naruto.

Shizune poked her head in. "Tsunade-sama, is there something wrong?" she asked.

The blond woman just grunted and held up the weird paper. When her assistant took it, she said, "What do you think?"

Shizune blinked a couple of times as if trying to clear her eyes. "What kind of language is this?"

"How the hell should I know?" asked Tsunade, "It's strange, but I can somehow understand it. I was writing down a translation when you came in."

The brunette picked up the form and examined it. She frowned. "This is most unusual, Tsunade-sama. A C-ranked mission that's also time-sensitive…will you be adding this to the list of missions?"

"Of course," Tsunade shrugged, "It's what the client paid for; whoever they are."

"Well-" Shizune gave a double-take at the signature, "Oh, I see what you mean. I'll take this down anyway, if you're done with it."

The busty Kage had gone back to her paperwork and waved her assistant off.

As she walked downstairs to deposit the paper at the mission office, Shizune sighed. _Maybe the information will be that Naruto miraculously survived,_ she thought glumly, _It might snap her out of this depression. It might cheer up everyone, for that matter._

[Several weeks ago]

…/? (I3)

While those in Konoha commiserated the fate of their own Jinchuuriki, another Jinchuuriki was contemplating his situation. Yagura was floating above the floor of a seabed, wondering what had happened to him. He knew that he was supposed to be drowning, but that didn't seem to be happening.

Isobu was gone. No, that wasn't quite right. He was Isobu, but he was Yagura as well. How could that be? A person couldn't be of two minds at once. And yet, not only could he remember his own life as a Jinchuuriki, he could also remember being the patient, slow Sanbi. He could faintly remember being the Juubi (Astonishing that such a thing existed), of being divided into himself and the other Bijuu by the Rikudo Sennin, and then spending about a century being sealed into various people. There was a moment of shock when Kurama's presence had suddenly vanished from the world, but it quickly passed. He would return, after all. Then this phenomenon of fusing with his own host- no, himself, rather. Somehow, he knew Kurama was involved.

Yagura was feeling oddly cramped in his own body. Why did it have to be so small? He would much rather swim through the depths as the mighty turtle. Somehow, he knew that he could transform into a Bijuu form, but how to do it was currently beyond him. The gray-haired man sighed and drifted through the water, wondering if the other Bijuu were experiencing the same thing. He glanced at his left hand, on which a strange symbol had appeared. A set of four concentric rings, along with three tomoe on the innermost ring. Isobu knew that this symbol was related to the Juubi somehow, but the exact significance eluded his turtle mind.

"Well, well," said a sly, stilted voice, "I knew I'd find you hiding here, Yagura." The former Mizukage's reaction was a bit more subdued compared to how he used to respond. He turned slowly to see a blue hybrid of a man and a shark swimming towards him. Kisame Hoshigaki, fused with his sword, Samehada. "So, you gonna come quietly?" the shark-man asked with a hint of bloodlust, "Or will you run away again?"

The old Yagura probably would have been baited to attack the nuke-nin. Unfortunately for Kisame, Isobu was much more patient that. He knew that he possessed power enough to defeat the former Ninja Swordsman, but currently he was still trying to figure out exactly what that power was. "In this case, I think I'll retreat," he said calmly. To the shark-man's surprise, before he could move to attack, Yagura vanished abruptly with a rush of water. No matter how much chakra he put out, Kisame could not sense even a trace of his old friend's chakra.

Then his surprise gave way to excitement and his shark's mouth pulled wider in a grin. "Interesting…"

…/? (Sh1)

While on the way back to Suna from a mission, Gaara suddenly screamed. "Gaara! What's wrong?" Temari ran up to see what was going on, only to stop short as the sand around her brother started to churn violently.

The pain that Gaara felt was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before (Though that wasn't saying much). "Sh-Shukaku," he gasped, his hands clasped to his head, "What are you…doing? S-Stop it!"

However, this was not the doing of the Ichibi. Both the mind of the host and the Bijuu were starting to bleed together, the boundary that separated the two dissolving into sand.

"Shit!" Yelled Kankuro as the towering form of Shukaku formed out of the sand beneath the red-head, "He's lost control! Run for it!"

However, as Temari turned to run away from the rampaging Bijuu, it vanished. "What the…?"

The two siblings glanced at each other, then at the cloud of dust that had been kicked up. As the cloud cleared, they saw Gaara. He was clad in a shimmering brown energy, with a ghostly image of Shukaku hovering above him. Then it was gone and he fell to one knee with a gasp. As he did so, he saw a symbol on his left hand. Four red concentric rings, with a single tomoe on the innermost one. "Th-this is…"

"Gaara?" Tentatively, Temari reached out to touch her brother's shoulder, only to jump back as he threw back his head and roared.

"Kurama! What the hell have you done to me? I'm stuck inside this pansy-ass host body!" he roared, his normally stoic face twisted with rage. The sand around him erupted, sending streams into the sky before falling back to earth.

Both siblings felt foreboding when they saw Gaara's eyes. The color remained the same, but they had developed the same four-pointed pupils as his Bijuu. "You're Shukaku? What happened to our brother?"

The sand froze in midair for a second before falling back to the ground as Gaara calmed quickly. "I am Gaara," he said, his tone of voice slightly disbelieving of himself, "but I'm also Shukaku. That bastard fox Kurama did something to me- us."

"What do you mean?" asked Temari, "how can you be two…people at the same time." She hesitated to use the word 'person' to describe Shukaku.

The now-demonic blue-green eyes narrowed. "Naruto Uzumaki is responsible for this…fusion. He is the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, Kurama, and probably fused with him as well. Anything that could affect a Bijuu like that would affect all of us the same way. When I get my hands on that overgrown orange bunny…" Gaara trailed off with a growl.

Temari and Kankuro both sweatdropped. Whatever was going on here, it would clearly take a while to understand properly.

Strangely enough, it did not register to them from their youngest brother's words that Naruto was even alive, let alone responsible for this change.

…/? (M2) (G8)

In the village of Kumogakure, Yugito Nii lay curled up on her bed, barely able to scream as the flaming mind of Matatabi dissolved and mingled with her own melting persona. Her body burst into pale blue flames as she shook, paralyzed by the pain she felt. Finally, the blond woman abruptly rolled off her bed and landed lightly on her feet, panting heavily. An aura of deep blue light illuminated her as she crouched, an image of the Nibi briefly standing over her. As the light faded, Yugito stood upright, balancing on the balls of her feet as she examined the symbol on her hand. Four rings with two tomoe.

She sighed. "Kurama…what have you done now?" Matatabi stretched and moved to the window, wrinkling her nose at the scorched sheets on the bed. _I wonder if B is experiencing the same thing,_ the Nibi Jinchuuriki thought. She sprang out through the open window and streaked between the buildings to find her fellow Bijuu/vessel.

As the Kumo-nin leaped from rooftop to rooftop, over in Unraikyo Pass, Killer B was indeed experiencing the same changes. Because he and the Hachibi had a working relationship, the process was not quite as painful. Still, he completely lost track of the lyrics he'd been hoping to write down. Now there was no way to remember them. He glanced down at his left hand, which had four rings on it, with three tomoe on the inner two, and two on the next ring. "Well, damn," he mumbled, scratching his head, "I knew Kurama was the guy without a plan, but he would never just become a man. Yugito must be having kittens. I wonder if she's still smitten with the fox; wouldn't be surprised, she always said she wanted him to have different eyes..." He trailed off, "Okay, I'll admit it, my raps just aren't wit' it. I might have to step down my game, this is getting pretty lame...wow, I really _am_ annoying."

At that moment, Yugito arrived. "B, did I just hear you admit that your rapping sucks? You _must_ have changed too."

"Matatabi," B acknowledged, using her Bijuu name, "Yeah. Seems that Kurama got in over his head and fused with his own container, and that set off a chain reaction with the rest of us, since we were all a part of the Juubi. I wonder what made him do something like that."

The Jinchuuriki of the Nibi thought about it. "Maybe he was forced to. He always hated humans more than anyone and would never willingly do something like this."

The new fusion of Gyuuki and Killer B frowned. "That makes sense. We'll see if any of the others have a better idea of what's happened, but if Kurama comes back, we'll be able to ask him then."

"Yeah," Yugito agreed thoughtfully. There was a moment of silence. "By the way...why did you say I was 'smitten' with Kurama? 'Cause I'm not."

B shrugged. "Eh, I needed something that rhymed."

She sweatdropped, but said nothing. _You and your stupid rhymes._

.../? (SG4)

If there was a job in Iwagakure that was easy on the nerves, the one that Akatsuchi currently had was not one of them. It was his turn to be guarding the Yonbi Jinchuuriki, Roshi, this month. The Tsuchikage was feeling paranoid that the old monkey would try and escape from the house he was confined to. There were rumors that some group called Akatsuki was going around and trying to capture all of the vessels of the Bijuu. Iwa, possessing two Jinchuuriki of their own, was a prime target, so the two of them were each confined to their respective houses and guarded twenty-four-seven. Akatsuchi was a relatively new Chunin, but this was a pretty important mission.

So when the old man started screaming, the portly young man reacted quickly. He let himself fall off the roof and, landing on the ground and darted through the door, running quickly to the bed room, where the screams were coming from. As he reached the door, however, it stopped. He froze, beginning to sweat. _Oh no. He's dead somehow. I was too slow and he died from, from whatever just happened._ As he began to silently panic, the door was abruptly jerked open.

Standing in the doorway was Roshi. He was lacking a shirt and was sweating profusely, his red hair let down out of its usual ponytail. "The hell do you want?" he grunted.

Since he was expecting the Jinchuuriki to be dead, Akatsuchi was caught by surprise. "I-I'm sorry, Roshi-sama," he stammered, "It's just, I thought I heard you screaming and thought something was wrong…"

The red-haired man raised an eyebrow. "I was training," he said flatly, though he kept his left hand hidden behind the door frame, "I have to keep myself up somehow. I'm not like that behemoth Han."

"Oh…" the younger Chunin mumbled, "Of course. Sorry to bother you, Roshi-sama." He left quickly.

With a sigh, Roshi closed the door and scratched his bearded chin. As he did so, an uncharacteristic smirk pulled at his mouth. "Fool. Like a being such as myself needs to worry about growing weak." He glanced at the symbol on his hand. Concentric rings, three tomoe on the innermost one, with one more on the next ring. He snorted. "Hmph. I don't know what wily fox is thinking, trapping me in the form of a human, but no matter; it will be easier to move about at this size. But when I find that fox, I will show him the wrath of The Great Sage Equal to Heaven!"

…/? (K5)

Whereas Roshi, a ninja who was loyal to the village, was given only one guard, the Jinchuuriki known as Han was given six guards around the clock. There were multiple reasons for this; for one thing, his Bijuu was the Gobi, which was stronger than Roshi's Yonbi. For another, due to his skills with his Jōki no Yoroi (Steam Armor), there was no way that one guard would be enough to keep him confined. Though he maintained a calm demeanor most of the time, Han had an unfortunate habit of going where he shouldn't because of a sudden whim. Sure, he agreed to stay in his hut at first, but then he'd abruptly think about a place and start walking there without warning.

When he fused Kokuo, he managed to not scream. He didn't want to bother his guards, after all. The mind and personality of the Five-Tailed Dolphin-Horse quickly melted into his own and gave him a new restlessness. Somehow, he knew that the vessel of the Kyuubi, or rather, the Kyuubi itself, would be needing his services. He had heard from Roshi about Akatsuki, and knew the other Jinchuuriki would be in danger. He felt a desire to help them, and he very well couldn't accomplish that from his hut.

He had not been allowed to fill his steam engine with water to escape, but now it seemed he didn't need that. Han reached for a sort of door at the back of his consciousness. The force that lay beyond it felt like the Youki he sometimes used, but more potent. With a slight twist, he opened it a little and let the Chaos (From Kokuo's memories, he knew that's what it was) pour into his engine. Instantly the bulky metal contraption began to vibrate and groan as it activated. Strange, multicolored steam began wafting from the pipes at the top, but the majority of it was being distributed along the inside of his armor. Han's skin burned on contact from the Chaos-steam and his armor groaned as the internal pressure increased.

At the same time, the quiet Gobi Jinchuuriki looked at his hand and curled his fingers. They opened and closed with a 'hiss, hiss,' surprisingly flexible in the movements. He quickly performed a jutsu that allowed him to move silently and walked to the door. _I should go see if Roshi has undergone the same process as me._ He opened the door and stepped out.

"Oh, damn it, not again" muttered one of the guards as he stepped forwards, "Oi, Han-san! You're not supposed to go out, remember?"

Han merely gave a grunt of acknowledgement, but bent his legs in anticipation, Chaos boiling on his skin.

"Hey, what's…shit! He's fueled with something!" All six of the guards closed in on the Jinchuuriki, only for Han to vanish with rush of air as he jumped. "W-what the-?" He heard one of them gasp as he streaked over their heads and the wall of a building.

He landed on the roof and kept running, not even slowing down. As he reached the edge, he put a hand on it and vaulted off the building. He hit the ground lightly and ran off to the left with a determined speed. The power flowing through his armor was allowing him to move at even greater speeds than he ever thought possible. No one would catch him easily.

…/? (Sa6)

Apart from fusing, nothing special happened to Utakata that day. When he told his master about it, the man had left abruptly, muttering something about plans being unneeded.

…/? (C7)

Fuu tossed and turned in her sleep feverishly, whimpering in pain. The Nanabi, which she had carried for as long as she could remember, was disappearing from her mind. She could feel the Youki permeating her body as the Horned Beetle merged with her. Afterward she relaxed, feeling strangely peaceful.

The next morning, when she emerged, the first thing she did was head for the nearest tree. For some reason she had a craving for some sap. A symbol glowed red on her left hand; four rings and seven tomoe.

…/? (Several weeks later)

In a dark cave, at an undisclosed location, the masked man known as Madara Uchiha grit his teeth as he stared into a mirror unseeingly. Things had been going so well. They had just managed to capture their first Jinchuuriki (Thanks in no small way to his efforts to lull the Mizukage into a false sense of security), and had even begun to extract the Sanbi, thus beginning the substantiation of his plan.

Only for it to go horribly wrong in a way that not even he could have anticipated. Not only had that upstart Yagura somehow reseal the Sanbi in himself and survive, he then managed to escape in a way that neither Nagato nor Itachi could comprehend.

Since then, the mercenary group's attempts at locating and catching the other vessels had come to nothing but frustration. The Jinchuuriki seemed at least one step ahead of their pursuers at all times, tricking them and throwing them off the trail.

Pain had mentioned a raven's cry right before everything went wrong. "A Raven..." he murmured to himself, staring intently at his reflection, "What does that mean?" Before he came to be in this world, his memories were a blurred, agonizing jumble. All he remembered was the name 'Raven,' and a feeling of endless hatred and opposition. Not only that, but sometimes his Sharingan would be replaced by a mirror-like eye, which would reflect the eyes of those who looked into it.

"All I remember is that a Raven is bad," he said quietly, "But I don't understand! What does it mean? What is its significance?" His reflection offered no answer. "Argh!" He punched the glass in anger, but didn't break it. "Why is my past so clouded? My memories are shrouded in chaos!"

Suddenly, Madara stiffened and whirled around, his crimson eye spinning. Standing at the entrance to the room were three people, though two of them stood in shadow. The third was a slim-figured woman in sleek, form-fitting armor. "You say your mind is in Chaos?" she asked quietly. The masked man shifted uneasily as she took a step forward, fixing him with a gaze that even he found unnerving. "Well then...why don't we see if we can make some Order out of that Chaos."

**.../?**

AN: Well, it was kinda rushed at the end, but oh well. Chapter 2 is complete for reading. Hope you liked it.

Summary time:  
>1. Naruto wakes up after fusing with the Kyuubi. He has some of the fox's memories and knowledge added to his own.<br>2. After the ritual to fuse the two souls, Melchior used some magic to give Naruto a body using his new soul as a template.  
>3. Ravirn explains the Greek Pantheon to Naruto, as well as the twin axes of affiliation. Ravirn's alignment is purely Chaos, balanced between Creation and Destruction.<br>4. Now that Naruto has fused with Kurama, he will be able to shift between Human and Bijuu form in a binary sort of way. Since he was recreated from Chaos, he himself is a Power of Chaos, so he may be able access forms that are in between as well.  
>5. Ravirn and Mel banter a lot. I hope I did a good job portraying that properly.<br>6. Necessity is sort of like the Goddess above all the others. As I mentioned, she is the manifestation of the mweb (Magical internet-like thing that connects the Dec-loci) and is pretty much omnipotent/omniscient.  
>7. At the end of the Ravirn series, they had to get someone to replace the old Necessity. They chose Persephone, for which she is eternally grateful to Ravirn, since it means that Hades can never get his hands on her again.<br>8. Ravirn has problems with Fate and predetermination both because of his nature and his past.  
>9. As a Power of Chaos, Naruto has a specific ability that has to do with both his and Kurama's nature that works through Chaos. He has to figure out what it is, though.<br>10. Necessity has a plan to let Naruto learn how to use his new abilities, while Ravirn gets sent to the Naruto-verse. The training Naruto receives will ensure that the timeskip happens.  
>11. Time moves a little differently in each MythOS, I guess.<br>12. That strange bit of paperwork that Tsunade found was written in Greek. I made up the signature, but it was from Necessity.  
>13. Everybody is missing Naruto to some extent.<br>14. Naruto fused with the Kyuubi. Since the fox and the other Bijuu used to all be part of the same being, a chain-reaction is causing them all to fuse with their Jinchuuriki as well. Basically, we've got nine different Powers of Chaos running circles around the Akatsuki.  
>15. Tobi (Remember, at this point, no one knows that he's not Madara) has a bit of amnesia. He knows that there's something bad (to him) about a Raven, but can't remember what.<br>16. Those people at the end are OCs. They are not my OCs, however; they belong to my friend PrinceAladdin2. They will be to balance out the new advantage that the Jinchuuriki have. They are known as the Warriors of Order.

Well, that's all I can think to point out now. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. My next update will probably be for CoG: NOT. Until then, please be sure to click the big blue button underneath this.

North South out.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I thought I'd get a start on this. Well, no time like the present.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Ravirn series. The only thing I do own is the fic itself and, should they appear, the UDOM.

"Speech"  
><span>Text<span>  
><em>Thoughts<em>  
><em><span>Inner being to outer being<span>_  
><strong>BijuuPower of Chaos**  
><span><strong>JutsuTechnique**

Chapter 3: The Warriors of Order, the Raven lands, the story of Winter, and the information

"Who are you?" asked Tobi suspiciously, "How did you get in here?"

The dark-haired woman spoke up again. "We are representatives of the Warriors of Order," she said, now impassive, "And before you say that you've never heard of us, it is because we do not exist as a group, per se, in this world. We come from beyond the bounds of what you call 'the universe.'"

Behind his mask, Tobi's Sharingan narrowed. "Oh? Somehow I find that plausible. To whom am I speaking, if I may ask?"

"My name is Yumi," she said, a hint of approval in her voice, "Just Yumi." She beckoned, causing her companions to step forward. "These are my subordinates, Bleeding Rose," Yumi indicated a darkly tanned man with pink hair and armor, "And the Mathematician," a pale man with blue armor, along with a matching hair color, fixed Tobi with such a flat, expressionless stare that it unnerved him. Not that he showed it.

"...My pleasure," the masked man said apprehensively, "Now why are you here?"

The Mathematician spoke up robotically. "The Lords of Order have charged the Warriors with one goal: ensure that the Destiny of all worlds come to pass."

Yumi shot him a look, which went unacknowledged, and continued, "We are here because this world's balance between Chaos and Order is shifting too closely towards Chaos, which will not do. This world of yours has too many new Powers of Chaos running about; we must rectify that by creating powers of Order. For this purpose, I have chosen your Akatsuki."

Tobi cocked his head innocently. "My Akatsuki?" he asked, "I thought Pain-sama was the leader, not me-"

"Don't play dumb with me!" the black-armored woman sneered, "I know that you are the Chess-master behind that fool Nagato."

The Sharingan narrowed, briefly flashing a dull silver. "Fine. Why should I believe you, though? What makes you think that you would be any better at catching the Bijuu than we were? Besides which, if you are associated with Order, why do you help me? I though Order represented good."

"A common misconception," she sniffed disdainfully, "Order can be just as evil as good. The same applies with Chaos. They label your group as evil, yet you are hunting those touched by Chaos. As Warriors of Order, we have both the means and the power to oppose them on even ground. I am merely offering you and the Akatsuki a chance to keep up. This is a one-time offer; will you cooperate with us, or will you drop out of the game and miss your chance to get revenge on the Raven?" She smiled coldly at his reaction.

At the word 'Raven,' Tobi stiffened, his fists clenched and his mirror-like eye glinting in the dim light. "...You know the Raven?" he asked hoarsely, "You know who I am and what that means to me?"

The paragon of Ordered Evil knew instantly that she had him hooked. "But of course," she purred, "And if you cooperate with us, I may even tell you what I know."

"I'll do it," he snapped harshly, before calming himself, "I will get Nagato to gather all of the members. How do you plan on helping us?"

"My associates and myself will fight alongside your...forces, where needed. Not only that, but in order to make the members of Akatsuki powerful enough to fight evenly with these Powers of Chaos, they must be made into Powers of Order. You do not need this power, as you are meant to oppose the Raven, when he arrives here."

"...What do you mean?" he asked.

Yumi stepped back into the shadows, Bleeding Rose and the Mathematician moving in synchronicity with her. "You will understand when you face him." And then they were gone.

Tobi looked back at the mirror, his lone eye reflecting it infinitely. "Things...are going to be different here," he murmured darkly, "But one way or another, Yumi-san, I will have my answers from you."

(Konoha)

Over the last two months, the unofficial group of Genin formerly known as the Konoha 12 had become rather subdued after the loss of two of their number. Although, most of their dispiritedness was because of Naruto's disappearance, rather than Sasuke. The blond had left much more of an impression on them than the broody Uchiha.

But no one had been hit harder by the loss of Naruto than Hyuuga Hinata. The normally shy girl seemed to have become more withdrawn, barely speaking to anyone when necessary. An ever-present aura of gloom had settled over her, making those around her uncomfortable in her presence.

Her sensei, Yuhi Kurenai, decided that the girl needed something productive to do. The Jonin went to the Hokage to ask for a C-rank mission and received an odd one.

Team 8 was to journey to the border of Hi no Kuni within a week or so in order to meet with a certain individual that carried vital information for the village. Distantly, Hinata wondered why on earth it was a C-rank mission for such supposedly important information; why couldn't Jiraiya-sama find it out with his spy network. But thoughts of Jiraiya brought thoughts of Naruto, and were quickly dropped.

However, that didn't matter; the mission had been given and there was nothing to do but to get to it.

Unfortunately, leaving the village did not really help the Hyuuga heiress to cheer up. She remained as depressingly silent as ever, only speaking when she spotted something with her Byakugan and distancing herself from the antics of Kiba and Akamaru.

After a few days' travel, they finally reached the border with a day to spare. Seeing as nightfall was already falling, they set up camp, anticipating the next day, when they would finally meet their mystery client. Well, except for Hinata. The poor girl was still a little hung up on the fact that the boy she'd looked up to (and even loved) for years was gone forever.

As fate, or maybe, Necessity had it, Hyuuga Hinata would shortly find herself happier than she had been in a while.

(Ravirn verse: Dec-Locus Prime/?)

{Ravirn POV}

"Whoa..." murmured Naruto.

"Yeah," I agreed with a casualness that I didn't quite feel, "Makes you feel small and insignificant, doesn't it?" We were both standing in the a large room full of bronze Abacuses, deep in the heart of the planet-sized computer that was Necessity. I had actually been here, once, about seven years ago when I was sneaking around the area. This room (the exact purpose of which still eludes me) had the ability to fling everyone and everything in it into a different MythOS.

Necessity's plan was pretty simple; Naruto would be sent to the Norse Pantheoverse in order to train in whatever Chaos or ninja abilities he had without bringing _this_ Pantheoverse down on all our heads. In the meantime, Melchior and I would be sent to Naruto's MythOS in order to tell the Hokage (some lady named Tsunade) that said blond was actually still alive and that he would return in three years. I had a suspicion that we would have to stay there for the duration.

Naruto shifted uncomfortably as the bronze beads clacked and slid endlessly. "I wouldn't say insignificant," he said absently, "I mean, if I do have the Kyuubi's power, I could just smash everything to bits. Pretty damn significant."

I winced. On the alignment-cross, Naruto would be placed firmly in 'Chaos-Destruction.' "I'd hold off on that thought," I advised, "seeing as this is pretty much the only way you can get home."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. A moment passed in silence, then he took out a worn metal plate with a spiral-arrow symbol on it; the remains of his 'hitai-ate.' He handed it to me. "When you see the Hokage, tell her I'll need a new one."

"Right."

"And tell her that I'm sorry that I lost the necklace."

"What necklace?"

"Long story. Also..." Here he paused, a brief look of wistfulness on his face. "There's this girl back home who I'm actually starting to miss..."

I grinned and waggled my eyebrows at him. "Oh really?"

"Not like that!" he snapped, his eyes flickering red, "It's just...when I was dissolving- well, the old me -I couldn't help but think of her. I never really got to know her very well, but she was kind to me. If you see her, please, tell her I'm alive and still aiming for my dream."

I felt a bit of melancholy, for some reason. Something about the request seemed really private, even more so than the messages to the Hokage. "Yeah, sure. Who do I look for?" I asked.

Naruto thought for a moment. "Her name is Hyuuga Hinata," he began, "And last I checked, she was shorter than I was, and I used to be the second-shortest guy in my class. She's got this short, dark hair and really pale eyes with no pupils. Also, whenever I saw her, she always seemed kinda feverish and fainted a lot. But anyway, if you her…tell her that the proud failure is still going."

_Probably 'or something,'_ some small part of me thought. I tend to do that when talking to people

***CLACK!*** Naruto jumped as all of the Abacuses suddenly began counting in an eerie unison.

"What's going on?"

"It's started," I answered, a little uneasy myself. As the bronze beads began to go ***CLACK...CLACK...CLACK!*** my feathers stood on end. Well, not my real feathers, since I didn't have any; it was a more metaphorical feeling. "Listen," I said suddenly, feeling I should give the kid a heads-up, "When you're learning your abilities, you have to go with what you feel is natural. Since Chaos is your nature, it should come to you. Just keep experimenting when you get the feeling you're doing something right."

Naruto nodded, his expression contemplative. "Thanks for the advice. Any messages you want me to pass along?"

"Just a general hello to everyone. If you see a gigantic orange and yellow snake, tell him some stories from your world; he'll be glad for them. And if you see Tisiphone, which you probably will, ask her to please not kill me for coming home late."

"Who's Tisiphone?" he asked.

I spoke quickly, aware that we could be separated in an instant. "Picture a seven-foot tall woman with literally flaming red hair and wings. She gets pissed off really easily and has four sets of diamond claws and talons that she has no hesitation to use. Also, she doesn't wear a scrap of clothing, so when I say her hair is flaming, that includes her-"

"Okay!" Naruto interrupted me, his own face burning, "Way too much info there!"

***CLACK...CLACK!***

"Yeah, well, you'll see her soon enough. She's my girlfriend, though, so don't get any ideas."

***CLACK!***

Naruto smirked and _just_ managed to get the last word in. "Don't worry. She doesn't really sound like my type."

***CLASH!***

(Naruto-verse, Dec-locus whatever)

As I entered the new universe, my first thought was, _Touché._ My second thought, however, was, _Hey, where's the ground?_ I seem to have appeared several feet off of said ground. _Aw, crap._

Fortunately for me, a tent broke my fall. Unfortunately for whoever was using it, it collapsed.

{Normal POV}

Hinata stared at the crumpled remains of the tent that she and Kurenai-sensei had been sharing. Dully, she told the pale man sprawled on top of it, "...I was sleeping there..."

"Sorry," groaned the man, "Next time, I'll try _not_ to appear in midair."

Kurenai also stared at him in astonishment. Was this the person they were waiting for? "Who are you?" she asked.

Ravirn opened his mouth to say that he was Ravirn, but what came out instead was, "I'm fine, who are you?"

"I said 'who,' not 'how!'" snapped the red-eyed woman.

He winced. "Right, sorry. Just kinda disoriented from falling onto tent. Name's Ravirn."

" Yuhi Kurenai," she replied hesitantly. While the strange man had appeared out of nowhere, he was not making any hostile moves. "...Would you mind getting off of our tent?"

Ravirn quickly scrambled to his feet. The bag slung over his shoulder suddenly wriggled and a blue head poked itself out. "Are we there yet?" asked Melchior.

Hinata gave a squeak of surprise and Kurenai palmed a kunai at this unexpected turn of events.

"Nice going, Mel, you scared them," I sighed.

He looked around. "Scared who? Oh, humans...hello."

Hinata experienced a moment of irony as Kurenai fainted.

[Later]

{Normal POV}

Once Kurenai had been revived and Kiba and Shino had finally woken up, Ravirn found himself seated in front of a burnt out fire-pit.

The strange, inky-haired girl explained to him that they were waiting for a person who would presumably meet them at this location. This mystery person apparently had some vital information for their village.

Ravirn, eyeing the metal plates that they all wore, noticed that the symbol on them matched the one Naruto had given him. Speaking carefully, he said, "And your village is...Konoha, right?"

"'Course, can't you tell?" asked Kiba, as if it should be obvious.

Mel frowned at him. "Well, sorry if we're a little fuzzy on what village is what; we just got here."

Shino, however, tilted his head at the pale man.

"What?" Ravirn asked him.

"You asked what village we were from, while our hitai-ate were visible," Shino began in his monotonous, deep voice, "My Kikai do not detect any deception from you. Therefore, you are truthfully unsure about our allegiance."

Now Hinata spoke up, the veins on either side of her face bulging briefly. "Not only that, but the energy within you does not look or act like chakra. It seems likely that you come from another world entirely."

Ravirn was once again starting to wonder what he'd gotten himself into. He himself might have been able to analyze these facts given enough time, but the way these two kids were calmly deducing his identity was giving him the screaming creepies.

But no, the lady with the red eyes had to speak up now. "...But you also knew the name Konoha, or at least you knew enough to know our symbol. You've met a Konoha-nin before, haven't you? Are you the one who we were supposed to meet?"

"Are you asking us, or was that rhetorical?" asked Melchior sarcastically.

Ravirn added helpfully, "That's a yes, by the way."

Kurenai nodded thoughtfully. "I see...are you also the one who sent us the mission request?" She pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to him.

The black-haired man scanned the paper, frowning. When he reached the signature at the bottom, he grimaced and handed it back. "No, but I know who did. She's the one who sent me. As for whether the info I have is beneficial to your village or not, I'm not sure." He pulled out the worn metal plate and showed it to them. "I'm just supposed to tell your leader- Hokage, right? -that the owner of this headband is alive and will be returning soon-ish."

The pale-eyed girl stirred, a flicker of hope passing across her face, but said nothing.

"You mean one of our guys is off in whatever world you come from?" asked Kiba.

Melchior shrugged. "Well, not _our_ world any more. When we came here, he got transported to another world to train in some new abilities."

Kurenai frowned. "New abilities?" she asked.

"It's complicated," Ravirn began, "You see, between all of the worlds and whatnot, there's this sort of abyss called the Primal Chaos. It's exact nature sometimes varies between worlds, but it has one universal quality: if you mess around with it, you will dissolve into nothingness."

"Actually, it's not really nothingness," Mel corrected, "Everything that exists, body, mind, soul and so on all came from Chaos at some point. If you get immersed in it without some sort of protection would make you, well, return to that state of being. Everything that makes you, well, _you_ would just be wiped away."

"Right. So anyway, this kid from Konoha somehow managed to fall out of this world straight into the Primal Chaos. He was all but entirely dissolved, but managed to cling to this headband here with nothing but his spirit. When I found him, this," Ravirn waved the hitai-ate, "Was literally all that was left of him. So Mel and I made him a new body."

At the shocked looks on everyone's faces, Mel shrugged. "If you know what you're doing, you can make things out of Chaos as well."

Ravirn nodded in agreement as he continued, "Because I made his new body out of Chaos, it seems that he now has Chaos abilities."

"I take it that sort of thing is not uncommon where you come from," Kurenai observed.

"Well, it's uncommon enough. However, I myself am a Power of Chaos, though a minor one."

"What's a power?" asked Hinata. The others noticed that she'd begun to speak up more. She'd already said more than she had on the trip there!

Ravirn shrugged. "A power is a sort of minor deity."

"What, like a god?" Kiba asked incredulously.

"No, no, I'm not anywhere near at the level of a god. I'm not immortal, and my skills can be considered mediocre at best compared to the real gods."

Melchior snorted. "Don't be fooled by this guy," he said, pointing at his partner, "He has a history of pissing off people with a great deal more power than him and somehow surviving it. Not only that, he analyzes code in ways that make even me confused, and I'm a web-goblin!"

At the confused looks on everyone's faces, both newcomers sighed, knowing this would be a long day.

[Several hours later]

It took a great deal of time for Ravirn and Melchior to explain how their Multiverse worked to the shinobi. Once that was done, they had to explain about the gods and how they ruled from Olympus in Prime-minus-1. Then the whole Order/Chaos/Creation/Destruction alignment system, and who was at the head of where. After that, they explained how their magic worked, and how the gods had upgraded to using code spells after the mortals had finally invented computers. Finally, Melchior explained about the AI familiars that supported most magic users. Melchior himself had been built by Ravirn to be his familiar and cast the spells that Ravirn commanded him to.

"Though I don't order him around anymore," Ravirn added, "It turns out all of the familiars are self-aware and can function on our own. Now I ask Mel to do spells instead and he decides whether or not to cast them."

Privately, both Mel and Ravirn gave thanks to Necessity that the Konoha-nin seemed to believe what they told them.

By this time, it was quite late in the afternoon, and Kurenai felt that setting out now would be a waste of time. So, they stayed put and repaired the tent that Ravirn had squashed ("I don't suppose you have a spell to do that?") and spent some time training. For the most part, Ravirn stayed out of the way, and Hinata watched him carefully.

The Raven knew that she was bursting to say something to him, but he had no idea what.

The Jonin of the group also saw the Hyuuga heiress's actions, but chose to say nothing.

When the sun finally went down and it was time to sleep, Hinata chose to stay on watch.

As the girl sat tensely by the fire, she looked around as Ravirn sat down next to her. "Insomnia," he said, answering her unasked question, "I haven't really been able to have a decent night's sleep in years." He took off his sunglasses and folded them up.

As he stowed them in his pocket, Hinata gasped. "Y-your eyes!"

He glanced at her, the swirling orbs of Chaos unreadable, though the rest of his face was nervous. "Well, yeah. That's the price you pay for being stupid enough to get dissolved twice in the Primal Chaos." He gave a hard smile. "It gets harder to tell the universe that you still exist when the truth is staring out of your face." He paused. "It's also impossible to get a wink of sleep when you have a pair of night-lights for eyes."

Hinata couldn't help but giggle slightly, only to stop abruptly, a hand at her mouth.

Ravirn raised an eyebrow, his smile becoming less bitter. "It's alright, you can laugh. I laugh at myself all the time."

"N-no, it's not that," she assured him quickly, "It's just...it's been a while since I laughed at all."

At that, the man tilted his head at her, frowning. His swirling, colorful eyes blared in the darkness as he studied her. "...You lost someone recently, didn't you?" he murmured, "I guess I wasn't looking properly before, but there's something hurting you. Like...I don't know what it's like, but I know a grieving person when I see one."

Hinata stiffened and turned her back on him, activating her Byakugan. "That's none of your business," she said darkly, scanning their surroundings for enemies.

"I suppose not," agreed Ravirn, "Sorry, just an observation I made."

She only grunted at him. Hinata wished that this man couldn't see into her soul so obviously. His words were hitting a little too close for her liking.

He frowned suddenly. "I don't think you ever told me your name," he said, "That's rude of me, not asking a lady's name."

"... Hyuuga Hinata," she said, still looking around with her bloodline.

Ravirn tilted his head again. He recognized the name, as well as her looks . "I see," was all he said. Then he stood up. "Well, I'm going to see if I can't get at least five minutes of sleep. Good night, Hyuuga-san." Just before he ducked into a tent, however, he stopped again. "I was told to give you a message."

Hinata's eyes widened. "W-what? For me?"

"Yeah. It's not much, and I don't exactly know what it means, but Naruto is alive and is still reaching for his dream. He said to tell you, 'the proud failure is still going.'" His only answer was a choking noise, followed by a thump. He looked around to see that the girl had fainted. "...Crap."

He went and woke up Kurenai. Needless to say, she was not happy to be woken, but she revived Hinata and had her go back to the tents to sleep. Ravirn, however, still couldn't sleep so he sat across the fire from Kurenai. The Jonin was thoroughly creeped out by his glowing eyes, though she kept silent about it.

.../?

The next day Team 8, along with their new client, set off for the return trip to Konoha. During the few days it took, Ravirn sought to lessen the tension by telling the Genin stories from his world. Though Hinata kept silent, privately she felt that Zeus and Hades both were pretty terrible deities. Kiba was more vocal in his opinions of the gods.

"Well, in all honesty, Zeus is actually pretty bearable, once you get past the fact that he's a womanizing airhead most of the time. Underneath that, though, he's a shrewd, calculating tactician. He even fooled me for a while, with all his lightning and bluster. Hades, on the other hand..." Here, Ravirn made a gesture that showed roughly what he thought of the Lord of the Dead, "Hades is smoke and ash, a fire burning underground. He kidnapped Persephone, the daughter of the Harvest Goddess, and took her down to his realm, where..." The dark-haired man scowled.

Kurenai, being an experienced Kunoichi, felt she knew enough to fill in the blank. "Did any of the other gods try to help?"

"Aside from her mother, Demeter, no," said Ravirn, "Finally, Demeter fell over, overcome with grief. Being a major Goddess, however, this had very drastic consequences; the whole world froze over and all the plants died."

Hinata gasped, and Shino's eyebrows rose. "Damn," muttered Kiba, "I guess these gods really are something, if one could freeze the world just like that."

"The story doesn't end there," Melchior assured them, "When all the plants, and therefore people, started dying, Zeus stepped in. As the King of the Gods, and Hades' brother, he was able to make him let her go. However, before she went, Hades tricked her into eating three pomegranate seeds, trapping her again. Because of that, every year, Persephone must go back to his realm for three months. Since her daughter had not been completely freed, Demeter stood at a slight angle after that. And that, folks, is why we have Winter."

"That's a horrible story," Kurenai told them flatly.

Ravirn shrugged bitterly. "That's how it went. Every year, for millennia, that's how it worked."

However, Hinata noticed the use of past-tense. "Something ch-changed, though. What happened?"

"I happened." For a moment, if anyone were to look at the ground, they would see that Ravirn's shadow had changed, becoming a large bird with outstretched wings. "It would take too long to explain, but here's the bottom line: I freed Persephone. Hades wants to torture me for all eternity when I finally die. I dissolved myself in Primal Chaos and came back."

Everyone was wide-eyed at the bold statement. Finally, Shino said, "I imagine that angering the god in charge of your afterlife is not a good thing to do."

Melchior snickered. "If Boss were to become a god, he'd probably be the God of Screwing Yourself."

Everyone laughed at that. Even Hinata managed a weak giggle.

"I notice you're not refuting that," Kurenai pointed out amusedly.

The demideity smiled wryly. "Because it's true. I have a tendency to piss off people who could easily kill me."

The red-eyed Jonin sweatdropped as she thought of the Hokage, who was very short-tempered as of late. "I see..."

.../?

[Ravirn POV]

Our group reached the village the next day. I was surprised by the architecture of the place, which was quite large as well. The guards let us pass without much of a problem, which is always nice. At least they weren't not rent-a-clops. The village itself had a bright, seemingly inviting atmosphere, with people going about their business and generally ignoring us. "Nice place," I said.

I guess the others didn't exactly share the same sentiment, because no one answered. "Come on. The Hokage's office is further in," said Kurenai, leading the way.

The office, it seemed, was located in a round, oddly-shaped tower roughly at the center of the village. Well, odd by my standards at least; for all I knew, it might be normal for humans here.

A secretary in a blue-gray kimono looked up as we entered and smiled. "Ah! Kurenai-san, you're back! Is this the person you were supposed to meet?"

I stepped forward and bowed slightly. "My name is Ravirn. Would it be possible to meet with Hokage-sama now? I might as well give this over with."

She looked a little confused by my word choice, but pressed her finger to a strange mark drawn in the wood. "Tsunade-sama?"

"What is it, Shizune?" asked distant female voice. I suppressed a slight shudder; it sounded irritated. Suddenly, I was worried about how my news might be received.

"Team 8 has returned with the informant and he wishes to speak with you."

There was a moment before the voice grunted, "Send him in. Does the meeting have to be private?"

"I don't think that the information I have is too sensitive," I told the secretary, "If anyone else wishes to hear what I have to say," I looked at Team 8, "It's fine by me if they listen."

Shizune relayed my message, to which I received a, "Whatever."

As I went up the stairs, Kurenai, Hinata, and to my surprise Shizune all followed me. I quickly found a pair of double doors and, with a confirming nod from the others, went in. The office was a round room with windows that overlooked the village and a desk that was piled with paperwork. The woman who sat behind the desk was blond with a small blue diamond on her forehead. She wore a gray sleeveless shirt which held a truly enormous pair of breasts (I tried not to stare). "Greetings, Hokage-sama," I said politely, entering.

"Nice to meet you," she returned, looking tired, "Sit down. You three can remain standing." As I took a chair in front the desk, she leaned forward and said, "So, you're the mysterious client that sent the weird paper." She held up the piece of parchment wit Necessity's signature. "Why all the mystery with the request?"

"I didn't write that," I answered, "The one who sent me did. With the way she works, I guess she wanted to make absolutely sure that you'd take the…mission, and allow me to deliver my message."

"And that would be what?"

I scratched my chin, feeling nervous again. "Well, the message is two-fold but simple. The first is that…" I took a deep breath, "Uzumaki Naruto is alive. The second thing-"

Before I could say anything more, however, I suddenly found myself unable to breathe. Then I realized that Tsunade had actually leaped over the desk and seized my throat, lifting me with one hand. "Ack! What-!"

"Don't you screw with me!" yelled the blond woman, furious, "Uzumaki Naruto was killed on a mission several months ago!"

[Normal POV]

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune yelled in alarm and shock.

Hinata gasped and started shaking. "N…Naruto-kun?" she whispered, tears welling in her pale eyes.

Kurenai dashed forward and grabbed the Hokage's arm. "Hokage-sama, stop! You'll kill him!"

Tsunade glared at the dark-haired man in her grip for a moment, then dropped him back into his chair.

Ravirn slumped, gasping and massaging his throat. "W-what?" he gasped, "Was it something I said? Do you do this to all your messengers?"

"No, no!" Shizune tried to assure him, "I'm sorry, but Tsunade-sama has been a bit temperamental about Naruto-kun ever since he vanished."

"You don't say," I muttered, glancing at the blond Hokage, who was looking a little uncomfortable, "Can I finish my message now? Preferably without be strangled?"

She scowled but nodded.

"He'll be coming back in three years." Ravirn saw it coming this time and dived out of his chair as she lunged for him. "Powers and Incarnations, woman, what's wrong with you?!" he shouted in panic, "Are you sure she's not always like this?" he asked the secretary.

"Don't answer that," Tsunade snapped at Shizune. She stopped and took a deep breath through her nose. "My apologies," she said finally, "But we all believed that he was dead. That and nowadays anyone who's spoken about him has done so as an insult. As such, I reacted accordingly. Perhaps if you started from the beginning, things would make more sense."

Both Kurenai and Hinata glanced at each other, knowing how long said story was.

Ravirn grimaced. "Sweet Necessity, again? Alright, as long as you don't try to strangle me afterward..."

[Several long explanations and an introduction to Melchior later]

Tsunade sat back in her chair and laced her fingers in silence, thinking. After a few minutes, she looked up. "So, you met the Kyuubi," she said.

"Yep."

"And it told you about our world?"

Ravirn shrugged. "More or less. It at least told us your history. May I just say that the humans of this world have done a lot of very impressive things?"

The blond raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I feel honored to be praised by a god so freely."

"I told you, I'm not a god! I'm just a minor power who knows how to use what he's got," he groaned.

"But how can you be sure that the Kyuubi was being honest with you?" she continued.

He frowned and leaned forward. "You seem to be under the impression that I had a reason to distrust him. Remember, where I'm from we don't have giant demon foxes. Technically, we don't have demons at all, just monsters. Anyway, it doesn't really matter too much now. I'm here, I've told you what happened, what will happen, and what to expect."

"That you have," agreed the busty Hokage, "Thank you. With this news, I can bet at least some of our shinobi will be happy." She smirked at Hinata, who went bright red and hid her face in her jacket. "So, now what are you going to do? Will you go back to your own world?"

Ravirn's face went blank.

"You...don't know how, do you?" she asked, exasperated.

"No, I do. It's just, I'd like to stay here for a while; see what this world is like."

"And avoid Tisiphone," added Melchior.

The man looked sheepish. "No..."

Tsunade laced her fingers again, her brow furrowed. "If you really want to see what our world's like...you might want to consider becoming a Shinobi. I should warn you, though: you will eventually be forced to kill someone, and there's a good chance you might die if you're not careful."

Ravirn deadpanned at her behind his sunglasses. "Story of my life. If I become a Shinobi, do I get paid for risking my life, etc?"

"Yes."

"I'll do it!"

Everyone face faulted at the immediate answer. "Boss, do you want me to tell how bad an idea this is?"

"How's it bad? I'll be doing what I pretty much always do, except I get paid for it!"

"Well yeah, but that's like paying a bird to fly. Kinda stupid."

"Are you insulting my intelligence and my sort-of species?"

"Never!" Mel gasped in mock-astonishment, "What on Earth could give you such an idea?"

"Old habits die hard? Speaking of which, stop calling me Boss, damnit!"

He smirked. "Sure thing, Boss."

"If you're done bantering," Tsunade interrupted, "Can we get back to discussing what we're going to do? Here's your hitai-ate, by the way." She tossed Ravirn a headband, which he easily caught.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me," he said in surprise. He pulled out the worn metal plate of Naruto's hitai-ate and set it on the desk, "Naruto said he'd like a new one when he gets back."

The blond took the metal, a soft expression on her face. "Cheeky brat," she muttered.

"Also, he says 'sorry about the necklace.'"

Her eyes narrowed. "He lost it?"

Ravirn shrugged. "When I saw him, that little bit of metal was all that was left of him, so it's probably been reduced to nothing by now. By the way, where am I going to stay? I don't exactly have any money, so..."

_You're only thinking about that now?_ Everyone thought, sweatdropping.

Melchior groaned. "Oh yeah, we don't have anywhere to sleep."

"U-um!" Everyone looked at Hinata, who blushed and looked down, "I-I could ask my f-father if we could take him in as a g-guest. I d-don't think he'd w-want to, but I could try..."

The Hokage actually thought about that for a moment, then pulled out a piece of paper and started writing a letter. "Here, take this letter to Hiashi. It explains who and what Ravirn-san is, and his plans are." Glancing at Ravirn and Melchior, she explained, "Hinata is the heiress of the Hyuuga Clan, which is one of the largest and prestigious clans in the village. Her father is the clan-head."

Melchior whistled, though not in a spell. "Man, that's a real step up from what we're used to. Normally we'd have to hide out in a deserted Dec Locus or something. I'll take staying at a nice house any day!"

Ravirn, however, turned to look at the blue-haired girl. "That's...a very kind offer, Hinata-san." He paused, trying to remember the proper way of saying thank you. Finally, he inclined his head and said, "Domo arigato gozaimasu."

Hinata gasped slightly and flushed at being thanked so sincerely, but met his gaze without flinching. "You saved Naruto-kun," she said, a gleam in her lavender eyes, "For that, we- no, _I_ must repay you."

Shizune was surprised to see such determination from the normally shy girl, but Kurenai smiled with pride at her student.

"Nevertheless, it's...it's not often that someone would offer me something like that, just for something I did." For a moment, something about Ravirn seemed to slip out of place, and they saw a very tired young man in the chair. "Eris once told me that the life I live is a thankless one, and she's not wrong..." But then, a look of elation came over his face, "But twice in the past week or so, I've been thanked for my efforts. I actually managed to use my abilities to help another person without there being a horrible downside!" He stood up and started pacing restlessly, "Something tells me that if I stick around here, I'll have more opportunities to help." _And do other things,_ a part of him thought eerily, _This place is a latent Chaos-bomb, I can feel it! Oh, this will be such fun..._ He shook his head. _No, that way lies Eris's way of thinking. The Multiverse only needs one of her._

Unaware of her new Shinobi's thoughts, Tsunade cleared her throat. "Well if that's all, you're dismissed for now. In a short while I'll contact you about demonstrating your skills."

"We look forward to it," said Ravirn, standing up. He gave Melchior a look that told him that, yes, _they_ would look forward to it. He looked at Hinata. "If you would lead the way, Hyuuga-san?"

Hinata nodded and walked out with Mel and Ravirn in tow.

Tsunade looked after them, smiling. For the first time in a while, she felt that there was a reason to celebrate. _I should have known that stupid brat wouldn't die like that._ Then she frowned. _Something tells me that I'm forgetting something, though..._

.../?

(In a cave elsewhere)

There was an air of unease among the members of Akatsuki. All of a sudden, without any warning, their leader had called them to gather in one location. Naturally, they were all wary of betrayal, but were shocked when Pain himself showed up in all six of his bodies. There was some confusion when they saw the sickly, red-haired man with him, but put it out of their mind. The three armored figures on the other side of the cavern, however, were drawing the eye of everyone.

"Are you sure we can trust these guys, Leader-sama?" asked Hoshigaki Kisame, glancing at the blue-armored man suspiciously.

The orange-haired Rinnegan holder nodded slightly. "My sources tell me that these people can aid us in capturing the Jinchuuriki."

"Oh yeah?" Called the blond Deidara, "And how are they going to do that, un?"

Yumi stepped forward, smiling coldly. "I trust you've all seen what has become of the Jinchuuriki, haven't you?" she asked.

"Yes," grunted Sasori, his bladed tail twitching slightly in agitation, "Yagura seemed to fuse with his Bijuu, then used some weird technique to escape. Now we have to hold off on capturing them."

The man in pink armor, Bleeding Rose, snorted derisively, "Well, as you are now, you might as well give up! No ordinary human can hope to catch a Power of Chaos if they don't want to be caught."

"What was that, you fucker?!" roared a gray-haired young man, "I'll send your soul to Jashin-sama!"

However, Pain interrupted. "That's enough, Hidan. Yumi-san, if the Jinchuuriki have indeed become these...Powers of Chaos, how do you propose we capture them?"

The black-armored woman raised her hand, which began glowing with a golden energy. "The best way to oppose the Chaos energy they use is to use Order energy. I have here," she lifted a small bag, "A way to grant you all Order-based abilities."

"What sort of powers would they be?" asked Uchiha Itachi.

She shrugged unconcernedly, but walked to the center of the cave and placed the bag on the ground before walking back to her own side. "It depends on you, I suppose; the Order energy will strengthen whatever abilities you already have."

The only female member of Akatsuki, a woman with blue hair and orange eyes, spoke up now. "Why are you stepping to aid us now? Why not capture the Jinchuuriki yourself?"

"Numbers are insufficient," said The Mathematician mechanically, "'Bleeding Rose,' 'The Mathematician,' and 'Yumi' are the only Warriors at the ready in this world. Three-on-one odds are unfavorable."

Yumi nodded. "As for why we're offering our services," she said to the group, "As we told your leader, we are interested not only in ensuring the Destiny of this universe, but also in balancing out the forces of Chaos and Order, which are too close to Chaos at this point."

There was a long silence as everyone glanced suspiciously at the bag on the floor. Was it worth the risk that this might be poison?

Finally, the black-and-white Zetsu spoke up. "I say we do it. **They haven't lied yet,** and we do need an advantage to catch the Jinchuuriki. **I don't think we should include Tobi, though."**

"Eh?" asked the spiral-masked man, "Why not, senpai?"

**"Your abilities aren't much to boast about,"** grunted Black-Zetsu, "Besides, if this goes wrong and we die, you can avenge us!" said White-Zetsu cheerfully.

Tobi flinched, sweating, and looked at the Warriors. Bleeding Rose smirked at him, causing him to squeak and hide behind Deidara. "Ack! Scary!" he said.

"Get off me, un!" snapped the blond, throwing the childish man off him.

**"...Or not,"** muttered Black-Zetsu.

As they bickered, one of Pain's bodies stepped forward and picked up the bag, carrying it over to the other members of the group. "Here, take one. On my mark, we'll all take it," he said. When everyone had taken a golden pill, he pulled out one himself, but instead handed it to the decrepit redhead in the walking contraption.

"On the count of three," said the man in a raspy voice, "One. Two. Three." All of them swallowed their pill.

For a moment, nothing happened. "Oi, bitch, what the hell?" asked Hidan angrily, "Nothing's happen- Argh!" He suddenly doubled over as an aura of golden light erupted around him.

All of the other Akatsuki members started reacting as well. The cave was filled with screams of agony and golden energy. Finally, there was silence as everyone fell unconscious.

"Hm..." mused Tobi, his childish demeanor gone, "An interesting effect. I suppose what you told them was true?" he asked Yumi.

She nodded. "Of course," she said, "It will increase their abilities and give them new ones through that."

"I see. No wonder it caused them such pain," he said, nodding in realization.

Bleeding Rose just looked at him with a quirked eyebrow. "You're mistaken, masked fellow. Normally the transfer is a painless, wonderful one."

The Sharingan blinked, momentarily confused, before looking at Yumi. She grinned at him, a sense of wicked amusement behind the expression. "He's correct. Normally it's quite painless."

"Meaning?" asked Tobi. His only answer was a wider smile, as if waiting for him to get the joke. Then he did. "Ah." He threw back his head and laughed. "I see! Quite the sadist, aren't you?"

Yumi smiled as if it were a compliment, while the pink-haired man joined in the laughter. The Mathematician, however, did not move a muscle.

AN: Well, here's chapter 3 for you. My apologies if it's a bit rushed, but I _really_ wanted to get this done. If the explanations were a bit long-winded, I offer more apologies.

Summary notes:

1. The three Warriors are OCs by my friend PrinceAladdin2. They will prove an integral part of the story.  
>2. Hinata took Naruto's 'death' kind of hard. This has also brought up an odd habit that will surface in the next chapter or so.<br>3. The Abacuses are a method of transporting something or someone to a separate Pantheo-verse. Naruto has gone to one, while Ravirn is sent to Naruto's world.  
>4. He and Melchior immediately meet Team 8, who were waiting for him.<br>5. A round of stories by the two about their world. Fortunately the Shinobi believe him.  
>6. Ravirn's condition means he suffers from insomnia, so he and Hinata have a brief talk. Again, sorry for the rush job.<br>7. Ravirn gives Hinata Naruto's message, causing her to faint.  
>8. On the walk back, Hinata kind of wonders whether she dreamed up what Ravirn said, while he doesn't realize that.<br>9. The story of Persephone, which is integral to Ravirn's story.  
>10. Ravirn has a long history of pulling off victory and escapes by the skin of his teeth.<br>11. Tsunade has been under a lot of stress from Naruto's death. She's in no mood for supposed jokes about him.  
>12. ...So Ravirn finds himself once again at the mercy of someone stronger than him. Story of his life right there.<br>13. Another round of explaining, which I skipped.  
>14. Plans are made for Ravirn to stay for a while.<br>15. For those not fluent in Japanese, 'domo arigato gozaimasu' is the highest form of gratitude one can verbalize.  
>16. Ravirn's inner nature, the Raven is a wild thing that loves to cause havoc.<br>17. The Akatsuki are given an edge by the Warriors to fight the Chaos Jinchuuriki.  
>18. According to my friend, Yumi is highly sadistic, so she tampered with the pills to make them cause large amounts of pain.<p>

In case you didn't notice from the summary, I'm changing the story pairing to NaruHinaFuu. Might as well try it.

Anyway, next chapter, I'll probably do the timeskip. That or I might have a chapter or two showing Ravirn's life in Konoha. What do you think I should do?

Please leave your thoughts and comments in a Review or PM. See you! North South out.


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